GOP Attempt to Block Challenge to Ports Deal Collapses

GOP Attempt to Block Challenge to Ports Deal Collapses

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 7, 2006; 6:21 PM

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

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) will attach the legislation as early as Wednesday 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 has vowed to veto any bill delaying or stopping Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.


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

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House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) has been working toward a compromise that would require DP World to team with an American 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.
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