Legislation to secure City ports

With the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks approaching quickly, security remains a top priority within the city and throughout the country. However, a group of New York State Senators believes that the area ports are still vulnerable to terrorist attacks and have introduced four bills into the Senate to tighten security at New York Ports.
“In addition to the ease of which a weapon could be transported by one of the cargo containers, we’ve recently been told by federal investigators that less than 10 percent of them are inspected before entering the United States,” said Senator Frank Padavan, Chair of the Senate Majority Task Force on Port Security. “We’ve also been told that the screening wouldn’t necessarily detect a nuclear weapon.”
In light of these disturbing findings, Padavan, along with fellow Senator Serphin Maltese and five other senators, toured the Port of New York and New Jersey last month before introducing legislation that would give the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor more authority in taking measures to make the ports safer.
The new legislation would grant greater subpoena power with out-of-state witnesses who refuse to appear to help investigations as well as give them the ability to revoke or deny a license or registration to port workers associated with terrorism or organized crime groups.