Adfero Partner Chris Battle Quoted in CQ

August 16th, 2010 -

International Cargo Screening a Tough Mandate for TSA

By Rob Margetta, CQ Staff

At the beginning of August, when the Transportation Security Administration’s deadline to screen all cargo shipped on passenger aircraft came due, the agency said it hit its goal for domestic flights but would need a few more years for international aviation.

But the gap between domestic and international cargo screening is so wide, some experts wonder if it will ever be possible to bridge.

“It’s about as wide as the Grand Canyon,” said Jeffrey Sural, a former deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, now at the law firm Alston and Bird.

The problem is neither logistical nor technological, although there are certainly challenges in those areas. Rather, it’s diplomatic.

The explosives-screening mandate, established by the law that implemented recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission (110-53), takes TSA out of its comfort zone — establishing U.S. transportation security procedures — and puts it in the position of negotiating with every nation that sends cargo to America on passenger planes. Although the agency has scored significant agreements with major shipping partners, Sural said that there is a chance that some countries’ vision for screening will never line up with TSA’s.

“The world looks at security a little bit differently, especially when you’re talking about an arbitrary mandate of 100 percent,” he said.

The foreign-relations issue has increasingly caused headaches for the Department of Homeland Security. Earlier this year, after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was charged with trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam as it approached Detroit, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano embarked on a foreign tour in an intensive effort to develop international passenger-screening agreements.

Customs and Border Protection, meanwhile, is struggling with another requirement of the 9/11 commission law: the mandate to perform radiation scanning on all U.S.-bound cargo before it leaves foreign ports. CBP has described the goal as impractical and possibly unfeasible due to deficiencies in radiation scanners and difficulties negotiations with many foreign countries.

TSA has maintained a more optimistic view of its explosives-screening mandate, however. So far, the agency calculates that 55 percent of total international air cargo is being screened, including all cargo identified as “high risk.”

“TSA believes industry can and will achieve the 100 percent screening mandate of the 9/11 act by 2013,” agency spokesman Greg Soule said last week.

TSA cites recent benchmarks, including information-sharing agreements with the European Union and Canada and a 2008 pact signed by those governments, the U.S. and Australia with the intention of ensuring equivalent levels of air-cargo security. Officials are under no delusion that further progress will be easy, though.

“The scope of the 9/11 Act requirement for inbound passenger air cargo presents significant challenges in the international air-cargo environment and requires an approach that increases the security of the global supply chain without unduly impeding the flow of global commerce,” Soule said.

Some observers believe that trying to reach the 100 percent goal too quickly will make those consequences impossible to avoid.

“There is no way TSA can enforce that mandate,” said Chris Battle, the former director of public affairs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who now manages homeland security issues for the Adfero Group. “It will require cooperation between governments, not unilateral regulations from the U.S. Congress. Working out international agreements will take some time. Unless, of course, Congress intends to shut down commerce and international supply chains.”

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