WASHINGTON — House Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon), seeking to derail a government-owned Arab company's plans to manage port facilities in six American cities, said Thursday he would introduce legislation not only to kill that deal but also to prevent foreign companies from controlling facilities determined to be critical to U.S. national security.
Hunter's legislation could affect the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, where 13 of the 14 container terminal operations are foreign-owned. "It makes sense in this new age of terrorism that critical infrastructure be owned by Americans," Hunter said in an interview. He said his proposal could apply not only to ports but also to power plants and "other infrastructure that is critical to the nation."
Hunter's plans put him on a collision course with President Bush, who has vowed that he would use such a bill to deliver the first veto of his presidency.
The furor has also proved awkward for former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Facilities at the port of New York are included in the sale, which she has strongly opposed. Her husband, meanwhile, had apparently talked with leaders of the company about a public relations strategy to rescue the deal. The company, Dubai Ports World, is owned by the government of Dubai, one of the sheikdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates.
Hunter led a hearing at which Republicans and Democrats took turns bashing first the company's corporate leadership and then representatives of the executive branch committee that approved Dubai Ports World's purchase of Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., a privately owned British firm that operates container terminals worldwide. Among the assets included in the sale are operations in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, New Orleans, New York and Newark, N.J.
A British court Thursday denied a legal challenge to the takeover, which, if appeals fail, will become final next week. But the company has separately agreed to postpone taking over management of the U.S. terminals for 45 days to give the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States time to subject the takeover to greater scrutiny. That committee, made up of 12 government representatives, determines whether national security might be compromised when foreign companies seek to buy American industry or invest in it.
