From Congressman Michael McCaul
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas In my first official act as Homeland Security Chairman I gathered the largest congressional delegation ever to meet at the Port of Houston. Port traffic is expected to increase 15 in the next couple years after the Panama Canal is expanded to accommodate larger ships carrying liquid natural gas.
This will bring great opportunity for the Houston Ship Channel but also risk as we know that Al Qaeda has expressed the desire to attack oil tankers in the United States. I told Port Authority Executive Director Len Waterworth that I am committed to increasing the Port of Houstons share of maintenance funds to allow for deeper dredging and to increase security to needed levels as traffic increases.
The Port receives only 15 cents for every dollar it puts in the fund. Twenty-five percent of our petroleum imports come through the Port of Houston and it accounts for nearly one-third of our nations refining capacity.
Manufacturing Award
On Thursday I was proud to accept the National Association of Manufacturers Award for Legislative Excellence at Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America in Houston. Manufacturing is the backbone of Americas economy and it is important that our policies in Washington help our manufacturers to flourish.
Outreach
I had several productive meetings with community and business leaders in Katy Tomball and Giddings as well as discussions with the Greater Houston Partnership. In Austin I met with members of the high tech community including Microsoft Dell IBM AMD and Google.
There is great anticipation about cybersecurity legislation needed to facilitate the voluntary sharing of threat information. This is one of my Committees top legislative priorities. However before legislation is introduced we are holding listening posts with stakeholders to ensure the policies we implement are helpful to business and security and will not bring unintended consequences. I also met with state legislators both Republican and Democrat who represent many of the same communities across the 10th District.
McCAUL IN THE NEWS
Laura Ingraham -
Interview on Border Security
ABC 13 Houston -
Port Security
NBC 2 Houston -
Port Security
Fox 26 Houston -
Port Security live interview
Forbes -
Terrorist safe havens in N. Africa threaten US homeland
Houston Chronicle -
McCaul vows more funds for Ship Channel
