How much money is proposed for port security grants in President Bush's budget for the coming year? Zero....In a nationwide review, under the Maritime Security Act, the Coast Guard identified $7.4 billion in port security upgrades needed in the next decade. Our congressional delegation and other coastal lawmakers have fought hard to appropriate at least $400 million a year to meet these needs. They managed to get $175 million last year
...money for the ports of New York-Newark, Los Angeles-Long Beach and Seattle-Tacoma was held up by the administration. Money was released only after Murray blocked Senate confirmation of a top presidential appointment. Nor, tellingly, did Homeland Security say a word about West Coast ports -- the real stepchildren of federal neglect. "Fifty percent of freight coming into America comes to West Coast ports. Yet only 20 percent of federal infrastructure money comes here. We are undernourished from the get-go," said Bruce Agnew of the Discovery Institute's Cascadia Center. Read More ›