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Port security bill dies before vote
Background checks for stevedores, longshoremen will have to wait
By Matthew French
Staff Writer
The South Carolina General Assembly adjourned for the summer without passing a maritime security bill that would have required anyone working at one of the state’s ports to undergo a background check for prior criminal convictions.
The bill received stiff opposition from the stevedores and longshoremen’s union, which say they conduct background checks of their members but do not share that information with the South Carolina State Ports Authority.
The General Accountability Office, the independent investigational arm of Congress, has issued repeated reports indicating the nation’s ports are a gaping hole in Homeland Security. The federal government has implemented several pilot programs to address the security needs, but little has been done to address the problem on a nationwide scale.
At the state level, a bill introduced in February would have put South Carolina ahead of the curve by requiring criminal background checks be conducted by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the FBI.
“A person who within the seven years preceding the date of a criminal history check has been convicted of or pleaded guilty or nolo contendere (no contest) to a violent crime… or an act of terrorism may not work within a state ports authority facility,” the bill reads.
The issue was brought to the forefront in South Carolina when a dockworker in early February drove a truck over a stevedore supervisor. After the incident, details emerged about the truck driver’s suspended driver’s license and substantial criminal background.
The SPA already conducts a criminal background check for each of its employees, but cannot do so for people who are not port employees, even if they work on port property. Contractors, stevedores, longshoremen and truck drivers spend considerable time on port property but are not port employees.
“The root of the issue is that the federal government is probably going to implement federal guidelines to which all ports must adhere,” says SPA spokesman Byron Miller. “There are already a lot of requirements on ports, but the requirements do not address background checks.”
National plans
The federal government’s best-known program that would address the issue of background checks is called the Transportation Worker’s Identification Card, or TWIC. In late December, the GAO issued a report criticizing the Transportation Security Administration for not releasing the Maritime Worker Identification Card program on schedule due to a lack of planning. The Maritime Worker Identification Card is part of the TWIC program.
TSA officials planned to issue the cards last August to about 6 million maritime workers but missed the target date.
Right now, there is no timeline. Appropriations were reduced because of delays in the prototype phase.
“One would expect that before putting more money into the program, DHS would have taken action on the GAO’s recommendations in order to ensure that future resources will not be wasted,” says
Margaret Wrightson, GAO’s director for Homeland Security and justice issues. “DHS is at risk of making unwise investments now.”
Miller says the SPA is waiting for federal guidance before it implements its policies.
“There’s no reason for us to be out there first if the federal government is going to issue guidelines,” he says. “The problem is that the federal government still hasn’t really done anything with this.”
Stymied in Senate
The SPA supported the defeated bill in the South Carolina Legislature, calling it comprehensive in the matters of security and safety, Miller says.
“The Senate blocked this bill, pure and simple,” says State Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, who is the primary sponsor of the bill. “Sen. Robert Ford (D-Charleston) and Sen. Clementa Pinckney (D-Jasper County) obviously have close ties with the ILA.”
Limehouse, speaking immediately after the General Assembly recessed on June 2, says the bill is already on the Senate’s
calendar for January, and he remains hopeful that it will see passage next year.
“I’ll start pushing it so that we can get it passed next year,” he says. “The bill already passed the house twice in two
different forms. I know how to work the legislative process, too.”
Truckers removed from bill
In the most recent version of the bill, which was last updated in mid-May, lawmakers had removed truckers from the background check requirement, but specifically included stevedores, members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and SPA employees.
“This section does not apply to those making deliveries to or from State Ports Authority facilities,” the bill reads.
Trucking lobbyists had successfully argued that requiring truckers to get background checks would create an undue monetary burden for drivers.
Bill Hollifield, terminal manager for Golden Strip Transfer and former president of the Charleston Motor Carriers Association, says many of the companies that regularly do business with the port already conduct background checks at the behest of insurance companies.
“Truckers were taken out of the bill because we already do the whole (background check) works. Truckers already have to get a certified badge to get into the port property,” he says. “One of the big questions is what will come down the pike at a later date. The federal government is talking about a nationwide—or at least regional, such as East Coast—badge for truckers entering ports.”
Rick Todd, president of the South Carolina Trucking Association, says the trucking industry did nothing to derail the bill and that most of the opposition came from the ILA.
“The first bill proposed included truckers because it came from a model bill proposed by the American Association of Ports Authorities,” Todd says. “But Rep. Limehouse realized that it was too broad and too far reaching and that the bill should focus on dockworker safety. Security isn’t the issue here because I think a box coming off the ship is more of a threat to Homeland Security than a box coming into the port (via truck).”
Since neither the SPA nor the state can look into the background of drivers, the ports have to take the trucking companies at their word that they are conducting investigations
“The ports authority is not allowed by state law to conduct background checks on people that are not its employees,” Miller says. “There are other things we can do. For instance, to receive a port ID card, we do a license check, which tells us if the applicant has any outstanding warrants or traffic violations.”
Matthew French covers governmental policy and legislation for the Business Journal. E-mail him at mfrench@crbj.com.
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