Members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Committee toured the Port of Vicksburg and met with local officials Monday in preparation for a hearing this morning at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

The committee, of which 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Bolton is the highest-ranking Democrat, will hear from port officials from New Orleans and Vicksburg during the scheduled 3 1/2-hour session.

Cargo coming through ports will be one of the chief topics, Thompson said.

“The fact is that we have so much cargo coming that is not inspected,” Thompson said.

Because of increases in the cost of trucking and rail transport, water transport has become much more popular. However, Thompson said only 6 percent of all cargo coming through ports is inspected.

Inspecting it presents several logistical problems, he said, because of the volume and lack of personnel.

“We’re not really sure we could do it from a pricing standpoint,” Thompson said. “There’s no quick fix,” he added.

Part of finding a solution is meeting with local officials, Thompson said.

“The one thing we don’t want to do is start legislating what people should do without talking to local officials,” he said.

The Homeland Security Committee is charged with overseeing the Department of Homeland Security, the newest federal bureaucracy, created in 2002 in response to the 9/11 attacks. Twenty-two federal agencies and 170,000 employees were combined and charged with protecting the nation from domestic attacks. Headed by former federal judge Michael Chertoff, the department’s budget for the current fiscal year is $28.9 billion.

One of the committee’s biggest challenges has been settling turf battles among agencies and making sure the grant process isn’t used as another avenue for pork-barrel spending, said California Rep. Christopher Cox, the committee’s chairman.

The department has been criticized for allocating dollars without regard to whether an area has likely terrorist targets. At one point, Wyoming was getting $35.31 per person in homeland security grants while California received $4.68 per person. Even former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge called the way grants are given “inappropriate.”

Cox said, “One of our committee’s major focuses has been on tying grant money to threats.”

In addition to Cox and Thompson, other congressmen at the hearing will be Reps. Bobby Jindal, R-La., Bob Etheridge, D-N.C., Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., and John Linder, R-Ga.

“We won’t do a lot of talking. We plan to do a lot of listening,” Thompson said.