House quickly passes homeland security bill

WASHINGTON – The House passed a broad homeland security bill Tuesday that requires all cargo on U.S.-bound ships and passenger planes to be scanned for explosives, expands programs to track weapons of mass destruction, and bolsters intelligence gathering along the border.

The bill, which implements many of the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission, is the first in the 100-hour legislative drive spearheaded by Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

It passed 299-128, with 68 Republicans joining Democrats.

While it could bolster the Democratic Party’s national security credentials, it also could fall short of its aims. Democrats did not designate funding for most of the costly initiatives, and critics charge some are impractical.

Industry groups and the Bush administration objected to the requirement that within three years all shipping cargo arriving from major overseas ports be scanned. Republicans complained about the lack of hearings on the 279-page bill, and Democratic allies in the Senate questioned whether it is too ambitious.

House Democrats defended the legislation, which is based on and sometimes exceeds suggestions by the bipartisan panel that examined the response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That report was issued in July 2004.

“Don’t be fooled by those who say this bill moves too quickly,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

About half the recommendations were enacted under the Republican-controlled Congress, but the commission has given Congress and the administration a slew of failing grades for its performance on implementing their reforms.

Pelosi glossed over the issue of funding programs authorized in the homeland security bill. The bill contains only one authorization – for an airport checkpoint screening fund that will get $250 million in 2008.

The bill is the first in a series that Democrats plan to pass in their 100-hour agenda before the president’s State of the Union speech later this month. Today they will take up a bill to increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25.

As lawmakers debated the homeland security measure, the administration issued a statement declaring it “cannot support … the bill in its current form.”

The Senate must pass the bill before it goes to President Bush.