Keep the Foot on the Pedal

There will now be a second, 45-day review of the Dubai Ports World deal. It was supposedly intitiated by the company itself; that sounds ridiculous ("Please, investigate me again"), but whatever. I think the Administration has very clearly stated that they see nothing wrong with this deal going forward, so I don't see what an additional 45-day review will accomplish, especially when it's to be undertaken by the same group of people (the Committee on Foreign Investments in the US, or CFIUS) that approved the deal in the first place.

Chuck Schumer is set to introduce a bipartisan alternative, which would give Congress the findings of the CFIUS study and allow them to vote up or down on it. But I think the Democrats are actually missing an opportunity here. While this 45-day review takes place, and while port security is in the front burner of everyone's minds, it's time to propose another bill calling for additional safeguards at the seaports. DP World gaining management control is about POTENTIAL security problems, but there are plenty CURRENT security problems at our ports right now. It would be so easy to slide this debate over to those shortcomings while the nation's paying attention.

Democrats have pressed an advantage here, and Republican fissures helped sustain it. It's time to keep the foot on the pedal and force a vote on port security, if for no other reason than to get it on the record. In the process, we can highlight the dozen other times Democrats have proposed port security enhancements, only to be voted down. I don't think any politician up for re-election would dare try that now.

It's reasonable to disagree about the threat to having Dubai Ports World take control of these ports (I've had those disagreements over the past few days). It's not reasonable to disagree that the ports themselves are already insecure. It's time to take care of this once and for all. More than giving Democrats a legislative triumph on national security, it'll make us all more secure.