Congress approves homeland security bill

WASHINGTON – Congress gave final approval Friday to legislation that requires tighter screening of air and sea cargo, and shifts more federal anti-terrorism grants to high-risk areas such as New York and Washington, delivering on a pledge by Democrats last fall to implement additional recommendations of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Voting 371-40, the House followed the Senate, which voted 85-8 Thursday night, to send the measure to the White House after dropping a controversial provision that would have extended union protection to 45,000 federal airport screeners. That language had prompted a veto threat from President Bush.

In a statement, the White House criticized Congress for not acting on the Sept. 11 commission’s recommendation to streamline its own tangled oversight of domestic security. But it said Bush’s major concerns “have been addressed, and the president will sign the legislation.”

Democrats said the passage of the third of six legislative priorities established after their 2006 takeover of Congress proved that they are delivering on their campaign pledges.

“With this bill, we’ll be keeping our promises to the families of 9/11; we’ll be honoring the work of the 9/11 commission; and we’ll be making the American people safer,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a speech on the House floor.

The bill implements many of the remaining recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission. It cuts in half the amount of homeland security grants provided to states with no regard to the risk of attack they face. Those guaranteed, population-based allocations are to be cut from about 40 percent of the total to about 20 percent.