Big-Box Retailers Step Up Lobbying, Donations as Cargo Security Deadline Looms

WASHINGTON — Atlanta-based Home Depot and fellow "big box" chain stores have targeted donations to key lawmakers and stepped up lobbying efforts amid industry resistance to a law mandating 100 percent security scanning for imported cargo.

The new measure — recommended by the commission that examined the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — requires that every cargo container be scanned for radiation or nuclear hazards before being shipped to the United States.

Business groups, who argue that importers are doing enough to improve cargo security already, are seeking to delay its implementation, which is slated for July of 2012.

"It is not a smart way to conduct cargo security" by checking every container, said Jason Conley, homeland security policy chief for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Foreign seaports would have to buy costly scanning equipment and America's trading partners could retaliate against U.S. exports, he said.

At the retail giants, including Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Best Buy and Circuit City, corporate political action committees have focused campaign dollars on Republican members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, a study of campaign filings by Congressional Quarterly found.

Of the top five Senate recipients of these funds, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, and John Sununu of New Hampshire are all GOP members of the homeland security panel, which could play a crucial role as retailers seek a potential two-year extension of the cargo-scanning deadline.

Maritime security authority Stephen Flynn said he has watched the "energetic" delay tactics with concern.

"The status quo is not sustainable," Flynn said of the current system, under which only a tiny percentage of cargo—that which has been identified as high risk—is scanned for hazards.

No system is fail-safe, said Flynn, a former Coast Guard officer and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. But he warned that an explosion of a single radiation device in a cargo container would freeze trade worldwide indefinitely unless shippers had a 100 percent scanning system to restore public confidence.

Although industry critics point out that scanning technology is imperfect and prone to false alarms, Flynn said that sending cargo boxes through a portal that combined both radiation detection and image scanning would give inspectors instant and reliable information about suspicious materials. He said the cost would be about $20 per container, which he called reasonable since a typical Wal-Mart container has about $60,000 in merchandise.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, the trade group for the "big-box" chains, attempted to defeat the 100 percent scanning proposal last year. Spokesman Brian Dodge said that was only one of many issues—including product safety, crime, and tax issues—that have prompted his group to grow and have an expanded presence on Capitol Hill.

Home Depot, for example, reported spending $570,000 for Washington lobbying in the first six months of 2007. That's more than double the amount spent for the same period a year earlier. The company's political action committee (PAC) handed out more than $1 million to candidates and political campaigns for the 2006 election, nearly double the amount from two years earlier.

Home Depot spokeswoman Sarah Molinari said the company defers to the retail trade associations on the port security issues. Even so, she praised the existing approach, in which top-tier shippers such as Home Depot are rated as reliable while more suspect shippers are given greater scrutiny. "The proven risk-based system is effective, yet ensures the continued flow of international commerce," she said.

Molinari said the company's PAC last year gave $697,000 to candidates "who advocate policies that are favorable to the Home Depot, our customers and our associates."

Among the five top recipients of the big-box retailer campaign dollars in the House of Representatives is Rep. David Scott, a Democrat whose Georgia district includes the Home Depot corporate headquarters.

Michael Andel, chief of staff for the Georgia lawmaker, said Scott had helped the company win a reduction of tariffs on imported ceiling fans and was in close communication with the company, one of his district's major employers. However, Scott also co-sponsored the security bill that included the cargo scanning provision. "He supports ensuring that cargo entering our country is safe," Andel said.

Home Depot's Molinari said Scott "always takes the time to listen to our point of view and is always helpful and fair," even if "we might not always agree on every issue."