Congress Wins a Round

DP World pulled the plug on the port deal, apparently under pressure from the government of the United Arab Emirates. Schumer gets a nice photo-op and maybe a surreptitious pump of the fist, but I hesitate to call this a great advancement of our national security. This deal was politically crass from the beginning and probably doomed to a watery grave. But let’s not lull ourselves into thinking we’ve addressed the port issue. I tend to agree with this sentiment:

"This is a case where we were arguing about the wrong part of the problem," said Stephen Flynn, a former Coast Guard officer and port security expert who has argued that the nationality of the port operations manager has little to do with the gaping holes in security. "Americans were shocked to learn that the vast majority of port operations in this country are handled by foreign firms. But transportation is a global network, and we're not going to own all of it."

Nevertheless, the deal deserved the scrutiny it got, and it's nice to see Congress call the President out for once.

--MM