Legislation introduced this month by two senators extends key provisions of the 2005 Safe Port Security Act, although it eliminates one key mandate, a 2012 deadline requiring the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that 100 percent of all maritime containers are screened by X-Ray systems before departing a foreign port for the U.S. Instead, the SAFE Port Act for 2011 calls for the Secretary of Homeland Security to certify the “effectiveness of individual security measures” of the layered security approach that currently exists to protect the homeland from shipping containers being used to deliver weapons of mass destruction, says Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.), one of the co- authors of the bill. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) also co-authored the legislation. “Until X-Ray scanning technology is proven effective at detecting radiological material and not disruptive of trade, requiring the X-Raying of all U.S.-bound cargo, regardless of risk, at every foreign port, is misguided and provides a false sense of security,” Collins says. “It would also impose onerous restrictions on the flow of commerce, costing billions with little additional security benefit.”