It requires vessels and port facilities to conduct vulnerability assessments and develop security plans that may include passenger, vehicle and baggage screening procedures; security patrols; establishing restricted areas; personnel identification procedures; access control measures; and/or installation of surveillance equipment.
This was a broad brush law that extended far beyond the maritime realm to encompass any and all acts of sedition against the United States, and came at the height of World War I.
This Act authorized the Coast Guard to conduct duties it had carried out during both World Wars to ensure the security of U.S. ports "from subversive or clandestine attacks".
It authorized increased inspections of vessels and required compliance with enhanced safety standards coming into effect at that time.
[5] It also authorized the Coast Guard to recruit and train regular and reserve members in the techniques of preventing and responding to acts of terrorism.
[6] So there was both a history and reasonably extensive library of laws that have recognized the threat of maritime terrorism, typically from a well-identified enemy, and fairly complete set of authorities to prosecute action against it.
The Boarding Priority Matrix assigns each ship a score based on five performance categories (operating company, flag state, classification society, prior history, and service).
[9] § 70103 - Maritime Transportation Security Plans[10] Once the USCG has assessed the relative vulnerability of different vessel types, due to be completed by Apr.
Cards will be issued unless an individual fits certain criteria identified as posing a risk (recent prior criminal convictions, association with terrorist groups, ineligible for entry to the US, etc.).
Unless they pose an immediate threat, foreign ports that are not deemed in compliance with US security requirements will be notified and given 90 days to correct the problem(s).
To that end, the Coast Guard will continue to conduct detailed vulnerability assessments of high-risk vessels and facilities, specifically to identify and evaluate critical assets and infrastructures, and threats and weaknesses in physical, passenger and cargo security systems.
Upon completion, the Coast Guard will provide the vessel or facility owner a copy of the assessment results, which will be updated every 5 years.
The Council supported inclusion of this provision to ensure the Government takes responsibility for completing these counter terror assessments and providing the results to the industry.
However, because the US government is required to approve the vessel plans as meeting this standard, the provision should not create liability concerns that do not otherwise exist.
Vessel and facility security plans must be submitted to the Secretary not more than six months after the promulgation of an interim final regulation on the subject.
Examples for possible grant fund uses include: increasing Customs' ability to inspect or target merchandise, enhancing accurate detection of explosives and chemical, biological, and radiological materials and agents, improving tags and seals for use on containers, and including smart sensors to detect hazardous or radioactive materials within a container.
If the Secretary finds that a specific port does not maintain adequate antiterrorism measures, he is obliged to notify appropriate foreign officials in the host country.
The Council worked with the congressional staff to ensure that these amendments were in fact "technical" and would not confuse the export cargo manifesting process.
This section of the bill also includes amendments to the Trade Act to require Customs to promulgate regulations, by October 31, 2003, to provide for the filing of electronic import and export cargo information for vessels bound to or departing from the US.
This provision essentially extends Customs' deadline for complying with the Trade Act on the electronic filing of export manifest information by two months.
Section 111: Performance Standards This short provision will require the Secretary, by January 1, 2004, to develop and maintain an anti-terrorism cargo identification, tracking and screening system for containers shipped to and from the US directly or via a foreign port.
This provision also requires the Secretary to develop performance standards to enhance the physical security of shipping containers, seals and locks.