Industry sources are saying that the US Department of Homeland Security will extend a blanket two-year extension on rules intended to provide for 100% screening of containers destined for the U.S. by 2012.

Agence France-Presse reported yesterday that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano admitted her department would be unable to meet the deadline without immediate investments tagged at $168 billion.

“GAO’s latest report brings into sharp relief the difficulties DHS faces in trying to meet a congressional deadline of 2012 for scanning 100 percent of U.S.-bound container cargo,” according to Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) called the 100% target ‘misguided’ and warned that it would provide a ‘false sense of security.”

Read the committee’s press release here:
http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Press.MajorityNews&ContentRecord_id=5105ac86-5056-8059-76ae-28516ab3dfac