GOP Blocks Dems On Port Security Bill

Senate Republicans have prevented Democrats from adding dozens of unrelated national security programs to the port security bill.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, called the 11th-hour additions "an interesting hodgepodge" of provisions that are "irrelevant" to the bill.

Collins is a sponsor of the bill that would install monitors at the nation's 22 largest seaports to screen for materials to make "dirty" bombs or nuclear weapons.

The bill could now come to a final vote today.

The plan offered by Democratic leader Harry Reid would have bolstered security on trains and buses and at chemical plants. Republicans charged it would have slowed efforts to improve security at the nation's ports.