Bush Signs Homeland Security Bill
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- President Bush on Thursday signed a homeland security bill that includes an overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $1.2 billion for fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration.
Standing before a mountainous backdrop in Arizona, a state that has been the center of much debate over secure borders, Bush signed into law a $35 billion homeland security spending bill that could bring hundreds of miles of fencing to the busiest illegal entry point on the U.S.-Mexican border.
Among other things, Bush said the homeland security funding bill deploys nuclear detection equipment to points of entry, raises safety security standards at chemical plants, provides better tools to enforce immigration laws and provides vehicle barriers, lighting and infrared cameras to help catch illegals trying to cross the border.
This is a good start to deal with the external problem. How about some stiff legislation to deal with the internal problem of American business people who hire illegal workers?
That new homeland security law is different than this port security bill which both houses of congress just passed on September 30, 2006. Once signed by the President, this law will initiate some very interesting gamma ray scanning technology to inspect cargo containers like the millions unloaded from international freighters everyday in this country.
VeriTainer Corp., formed by John Alioto of St. Helena two years after the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, is targeting shipping containers arriving from foreign ports as potential tools of terrorists with a weapon of his own, a gamma ray detector.
The most important part of the bill, the Port Security Improvements Act of 2006, at least for VeriTainer, is that it increases port radiation scanning requirements. It mandates that 100 percent of all containers inbound to the U.S. be scanned at the U.S. port of entry by the end of 2007.
Additionally, the act, if signed by President Bush, requires that three foreign ports, still to be chosen by the Department of Homeland Security, have 100 percent of their cargo container systems equipped with Vertainer-like scanning systems within 90 days from the time Bush signs it into law.