SCHUBERT: MARAD WILL PLAY ROLE IN TRANSPORTATION SECURITY AGENCY
The U.S. Maritime Administration’s new administrator, Capt. William Schubert, said his agency will play an active role in the newly formed Transportation Security Agency.
The TSA was created by the Transportation Department after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to provide security to airline, marine, and intermodal transportation infrastructure.
In the past, DOT’s various agencies had minimum communication with each other. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta told the agencies they now have to sit aside their differences and work together in the war against terrorism. “The only turf you need to be worried about is the turf under your feet,” Mineta told the DOT agencies.
Schubert agrees. “The realities of the new security environment that surround us have forced every mode within the department to consider each other and recognize that we are all interconnected and interdependent,” he said at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Alumni Association luncheon in Washington Thursday. “As the government official responsible for promoting the U.S. maritime industry, I want to help it succeed in a way that will quiet all the naysayers out there.”
Schubert said MarAd is also studying the possibility of offering employment opportunities in the TSA to graduating midshipmen.
“The TSA will require significant manpower resources who specialize in maritime and intermodal transportation, and have a familiarity with port operations,” Schubert said. “I sincerely believe that a secondary mission of Kings Point and the state schools could be to provide the necessary manpower resources from the graduates who may be unable to find permanent employment at sea to fulfill their commitment.”