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Made the right decision to take a riskbased approach and put readers where they need to be. And that we think thats going to be a measure in our program for our program considering its a biometric credential. I think the last thing is share information. Which we do on a daily basis. So we need good, quality information to make good decisions with. We need the information to keep on coming so we can continue to make good decisions after we issue the credential. We need to install readers. And we need to continue to share information, which we do on a daily basis with our partners. Mr. Caldwell . Thank you very much. I mean, the most difficult question is how do you measure security and risk . I think we have actually looked at that quite a bit across a lot of these programs. I think one of the better problems we found is Coast Guard Program called maritime Security Risk an ....
Request project level data upfront so we can start to get that information to form even more effective measures of outcomes. On the grants management side, senator, we certainly have measures now, and even over fy 12 measures of our monitoring. Mr. Caldwell mentioned the level of monitoring. 100 of our Port Security grants undergo some level of monitoring. We have a tiered Monitoring System where our Program Staff on our routine basis look at every award, look at the history of the grantee, the history of the outcomes achieved, their Financial Measures from draw down, rate of expenditure, rate of deobligation. That, then, is reviewed. We do prioritize based on the risk we see in their management of the grants all the way up to desk reviews where we request a lo ....
Number one sea port in north america for the importation of fresh fruit bananas, and juice, concentrate. If you had a banana this morning for breakfast it probably came through the port of wilmington. Our nickname is top banana. The top banana port. Port of wilmington isnt just important for the state of delaware, it serves as a key economic engine in new castle county, its also a key port for the entire United States. So protecting our ports, safeguarding our Economic Opportunity is responsibility that we take very seriously. As the Government Accountability office and other experts have noted, u. S. Port security has come a long way. Shortly after 9 11, the Maritime Transportation security act of 2002 became law and empowered the coast gua ....
Mesherment that shows that in a more compelling way. Each has a security plan, right . Yes. Has Homeland Security done an analysis of what the total cost would be to bring it up how much total for all of the tier one ports would we need to spend to bring them where they need to be. Do we have that . Do we know that . Im not aware of that analysis. Thats an important question because if you dont know what they need, i know you know where the weaknesses are. If the total bill for bringing our tier one ports is 2. 5 billion, were 12. 5 years from bringing that. By that time youll have replacement needs so the question is dont we think its important to know and heres the total cost to get us where we want you. Which one of those top eight ports, which one has the greatest vulnerability and should we not be spending maybe 70 million at one port and 30 million at the other eight on the basis what the total need to to get them to the ....
Areas, and sustaining existing capabilities. But, again, that measure can be better. On the administrative management side, weve made progress in measuring our ability to effectively, efficiently release the funding, monitor programmatic use of the funds, monitor grantee Financial Management of the funds, monitor the closing of the awards and grantee draw down. Were making progress, mr. Chairman, weve got an opportunity to make even more. Thanks. Yes, sir. For us, i think its about getting good, quality information and data for us to make the right decisions on when we issue a card. Its about continuing to get that information after we issue the cards so we can monitor the individual to ensure they havent done something as to disqualify them. Whether its on a terrorism watch list or something through a criminal issue. I think the other thing that is going to make us better is installing readers. We believe that the coast gua ....