Republicans Hold Firm on Ports Deal

UPDATE: It's DEEEAAAD! o3/09-06 8:40pm

House Agrees to Vote on Ports:
Showdown With President Likely
By Jonathan Weisman
The Washington Post



Efforts by the White House to hold off legislation
challenging a Dubai-owned company's acquisition of
operations at six major U.S. ports collapsed yesterday
when House Republican leaders agreed to allow a vote
next week that could kill the deal.

Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.)
will attach legislation to block the deal today to a
must-pass emergency spending bill funding the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan. A House vote on the measure next
week will set up a direct confrontation with President
Bush, who sternly vowed to veto any bill delaying or
stopping Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based
Peninsular & Oriental Steamship Co.

"Listen, this is a very big political problem," said House
Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), explaining that
he had to give his rank-and-file members a chance to vote.
"There are two things that go on in this town. We do public
policy, and we do politics. And you know, most bills at the
end of the day, the politics and the policy kind of come
together, but not always. And we are into one of these
situations where this has become a very hot political
potato."

Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert
(R-Ill.), said GOP leadership is "endorsing the viewpoint
of our members and Chairman Lewis that we do not believe
the U.S. should allow a government-owned company to operate
American ports."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said last night that
the administration is "committed to keeping open and
sincere lines of communication with Congress." She added,
though, that "the president's position is unchanged."



Since the Dubai port issue exploded last month, the Bush
administration, GOP leaders and DP World officials have
tried to defuse the situation and to buy time to let the
issue fade.

In a deal brokered by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
(R-Tenn.), DP World resubmitted its acquisition this week
to the administration for a 45-day national security
investigation. Frist has said he will hold off any
legislation in the Senate until that inquiry is completed,
a vow meant to give the administration and the company a
chance to present their case.

That agreement appears to have quieted calls in the Senate
for immediate action against the deal. Sen. Mel Martinez
(R-Fla.), an early critic of the deal, said briefings by
port security experts and company officials have eased his
concerns. But House Republican aides and Senate Democrats
said the Senate will almost certainly have to follow once
the House acts.

"This issue is going to go away like the sun's not going
to come up in the morning," said Senate Minority Leader
Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

"There's a lot of politics going on around here," Martinez
said.

The House is still boiling. Armed Services Committee
Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), with bipartisan support,
introduced legislation yesterday that would scuttle the
deal; mandate that the owners of "critical infrastructure"
in the United States, including ports, highways and power
plants, be American; and demand that cargo entering U.S.
ports be screened within six months of passage.

"This is a question at the heart of the security challenges
we will be facing in this next century," Hunter said.



House Homeland Security Chairman Peter T. King (R-N.Y.)
has been shopping around a compromise requiring DP World
to team with a U.S. partner, which would have complete
control of operations at the company's holdings at the
ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia,
Miami and New Orleans.

But lawmakers from both parties suggested they could not
accept that. Hunter said employees and management would
remain obedient to the company's owners, no matter how
walled off from operations those owners are. "It's difficult
to come to the conclusion that security can be absolute and
ownership can be irrelevant," he said.

Even King questioned whether it would be workable. If DP
World were guaranteed a percentage of the profits from its
U.S. holdings, it would have to have access to financial
records that King wants to deny the company. Instead, King
said, DP World would have to receive a flat annual sum from
those operations, a contract that may be impossible to
write.

DP World officials were similarly noncommittal.

"We appreciate the comments and suggestion of the congress-
man, among many other congressmen and people from the White
House also, as well as the senators," Sultan Bin Sulayem,
Dubai Ports World's chairman, told CNN. "This 45 days that
we have volunteered for review is a good chance for all of
us, I think. And I think by the end of this, they will
realize that there is no fear, no worry about security."

DP World officials suggested yesterday that within days,
Peninsular & Oriental's operations will belong to them,
no matter what Congress does.