Port Security Funding Pitiful

The Baltimore Sun reports on the recently released figures of federal grants to ports for security by the Department of Homeland Security and the numbers are paltry. In the wake of the whole Dubai Ports World brouhaha, you would think that port security, which is so lax as to be practically non-existent, would get more attention--but not really. While the Sun's reporting is understandably Baltimore centric, with the 33rd largets port getting just $1.9 million (yes million), a 60 percent cut from last year, but a 90 percent increase from 2005, there is broader infromation contained in the story:

Designated a second-tier port by the Department of Homeland Security, Baltimore will get $1.9 million, a cut of 60 percent from the current year, according to members of the Maryland congressional delegation and a Homeland Security official.

Baltimore ranked 33rd in the latest round of port grants, according to government figures to be made public today. All eight Tier I port areas, such as the New York/New Jersey port, which received $27.3 million, got much larger grants, as did most other Tier II port areas, such as Pittsburgh and Hampton Roads, Va., and several lower-risk Tier III ports, including San Juan, Puerto Rico, which received $4.7 million.

Although I have no idea on the criteria used to judge and assign tiers to a given port, I would think that on most counts, Baltimore is a bigger port than Pittsburg. Further, Hampton Roads, Virginia is home to the largest Navy base in the world, Norfolk and you would think that a little more security would be assigned there--but maybe that is just the sailor in me talking.

The reaction from Maryland officials is not surprising:

Gov. Martin O'Malley called the total "appalling" and "demoralizing." Although Baltimore is the nearest deep-water port to Washington, he said, only about 6 percent of the cargo containers it processes are given any kind of inspection.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings of Baltimore compared the $870 million he said the Department of Homeland Security had divided among the nation's 361 seaports through the end of 2006 with the $20 billion he said the Transportation Security Administration has dedicated to aviation security from 2004 through 2007, and said that security at the nation's shipping centers is not being funded adequately.

A Homeland Security official said yesterday that the main reason for the drop in funding to Baltimore was that two of the projects proposed by local agencies failed to win federal approval.

Ah, yes, the anonymous official hath spoken and Baltimore suffers.

Rep. Cummings is right though, the funding for port security is completely out of whack with aviation security. By definition, a plane can only cause so much damage. True, plane attacks can be horrific if done in certain circumstances, but an attack at a port can be devastaing on a much wider scale over a much larger geographic area. Given that few containers are searched, a shipborne attack is all but assured and only a matter of time.