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Station in Norfolk, conducted by a truck driver who used his TWIC card to gain access to the
facility despite a prior criminal record. 231
DHS also has responsibilities for safeguarding lawful trade. For the purposes of
addressing security risks to the homeland, the most significant challenge for safeguarding trade
that DHS has faced is the screening of cargo to ensure that potential weapons of mass
destruction, such as nuclear devices, do not enter U.S. ports. In 2007, President Bush signed the
Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007, which required 100
percent of all containers loaded on a vessel in a foreign port be scanned by nonintrusive imaging
and radiation equipment before entering the United States. 232
Despite spending $2.1 billion on Customs and Border Protection’s cargo screening
program, the 100 percent radiation screening mandate established by the 2007 law still has not
been met and DHS officials have reported that it will never be achieved. 233 Both Congress and
DHS leadership have failed to develop a clear and consistent strategy for meeting this mandate.
In fact, both have funded and directed CBP programs that promote opposing results. Former
Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a 2012 hearing before the House Homeland Security
Committee “the mandate isn’t practicable or affordable.” 234
CBP has also struggled with the management of a large and complex information
technology acquisition and development project to streamline information processing for cargo
shipping. In 2001, the federal government launched the Automated Commercial Environment
(ACE), an initiative to create a system for electronically submitting and tracking information
about import and export goods, which was originally projected to take 5 years to build at a cost
of $1.3 billion dollars. 235 Repeated oversight audits have tracked DHS’s struggle to manage the
program over the past decade, including the lack of realistic goals in the program. 236 In 2014, the
231 Mark Rockwell, “Does TWIC really work?,” Federal Computer Week, June 5, 2014.
232 P.L. 110–53—AUG. 3, 2007.
233 Opening Statement of Senator Tom Coburn, “Evaluating Port Security: Progress Made and Challenges Ahead,”
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, June 4, 2014.
234 Bliss, Jeff, “U.S. Backs Off All-Cargo Scanning Goal With Inspections at 4%,” Bloomberg, August 13, 2012.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-13/u-s-backs-off-all-cargo-scanning-goal-with-inspections-at-4-.html,
accessed August 15, 2013.
235 Elizabeth Newell Jochum, “GAO sees progress, ongoing problems in DHS cargo program,” Government
Executive, October 26, 2007.
236 Daniel Pulliam, “DHS trade processing system lacks realistic goals, GAO says,” Government Executive, June 2,
2006.
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