Coast Guard officials said the deadline for submitting the plans was met by about 5,200 of 10,000 ships told to submit them and only 1,100 of 5,000 port facilities -- despite a potential fine of $25,000.
"We do not have all the plans," Lieutenant Commander Jeff Carter said. "We recognize that despite our best efforts, there are those who won't comply for a variety of reasons."
Yesterday also was the deadline for airports to start screening all airline baggage electronically for explosives. But Deputy Homeland Security Secretary James Loy told Congress two months ago that the deadline would not be met at five airports. "A handful" of airports still don't have the screening equipment installed, said Darrin Kayser, a Transportation Security Administration spokesman.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress required the electronic screeners to be in place a year ago. But when it became clear that deadline couldn't be met, lawmakers postponed it a year.
One reason ships, ports, and other facilities were missing their deadline is they were given too little time, said Maureen Ellis, a spokeswoman for the Association of American Port Authorities. The government didn't finalize what it wanted until Oct. 22.
Ellis also said some ports found the regulations to be "overwhelming." The "plan review approval form" for cruise ship terminals, for example, is 20 pages long.
Lieutenant Commander Richard Teubner said the Coast Guard expects to get plans in the mail next week from many ports, stevedoring companies, offshore oil drillers, and shipowners. The plans must be implemented by July 1, when the Coast Guard can start turning away ships and shutting down ports that don't comply.
James Carafano, a homeland security specialist with the Heritage Foundation, expects major ports will meet the July deadline. Otherwise, he said, "the economic consequences are too horrifying to contemplate."
