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Last year, customs officials screened only five percent of the 11 million cargo containers entering the United States. That rate is both unacceptable and dangerous to our national and economic interests.

Although more than 500 million maritime containers move around the world each year, accounting for 90 per cent of international trade, only 2 per cent are inspected. Strengthening customs and immigration systems is essential.

Today, barely 5 percent of all containers coming into the United States through our ports are scanned.

Mr. Speaker, Delaware River's regional ports handle approximately 58 million tons of cargo yearly.

There are more than one hundred thousand ships at sea carrying all the solids, liquids and gases that we need to live.

Ninety percent of what we wear, we eat, we consume is carried by ships... Container ships carry a vast amount of stuff.

On 9/11, 2001, the Navy stood at 316 ships. By 2008, after one of the great military buildups in American history, we were at 278 ships and had 49,000 fewer sailors.

In South Texas, we understand how vital port security is and we fear the day a weapon of mass destruction could be brought into a U.S. port in a container and cause hundreds of thousands of casualties.

In my district, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles handle approximately 44 percent of all of the goods delivered to American shores, yet they are in constant need of revenue for facilities, improvements and upgrades to roads and bridges and rails.