Wasserman Schultz blasts Republican-proposed budget for its cuts to port security

 

Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said a two-thirds slicing of the national Port Security Grant Program would translate to a loss of $1.5 million for Port Everglades. Those grants are not used for day-to-day security, but pay for new projects and technology.

 

Standing in the port in front of a foreign cargo ship, with heavy trucks roaring by, she said “a tight web of security” at the nation’s ports is essential to the safety of the community, and also to the economy. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Port Everglades security has been beefed up substantially.

 

“Why would we go backwards?” she asked.

 

Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti, a Republican, joined her, saying the port is Broward County’s economic engine, and that “if the port fails, the county fails.”

 

He said Port Everglades has a unique combination of elements that make it a target-rich point on the map for terrorists: the Florida Power & Light power plant, the Broward County Convention Center, cruise terminals that are home to the country’s two largest cruise ships, tank farms and cargo that make Port Everglades a major petroleum hub in the Southeast, and the adjacent Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

 

The budget passed by the house would reduce funding for the grant program from $300 million to $100 million. The impact in Florida would be $8 million, Wasserman Schultz said.

 

Broward Republican Allen West, the new congressman in District 22, from Plantation, said via his office that the cuts wouldn’t impact ports the way it’s being portrayed. Since 2002, $2.4 billion was approved by Congress for the grant program, but only $1 billion has been spent.

 

“1.4 billion dollars remains ready for us, unspent, in protecting America’s ports,” a statement from his Washington, D.C., office says. “This means the Obama Administration has failed to allocate $1.4 billion into port security. That, along with the fact that Congressional Democrats failed to pass a budget last year, should be our focus, and should be of major concern for the American people.”

 

West is visiting Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and couldn’t be reached for direct comment