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H.R. 5005, ESTABLISHING THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY -- HON. TOM UDALL (Extensions of Remarks - September 04, 2002)
[Page: E1486] GPO's PDF
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HON. TOM UDALLOF NEW MEXICO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Wednesday, September 4, 2002
- Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, for the past two days, the House of Representatives has debated legislation establishing a Department of Homeland Security. The need for this important federal department resulted from the cruel and unprovoked surprise attack on America that occurred in the morning hours of September 11, 2001.
- Let me begin by saying that I strongly support protecting our borders; I strongly support protecting our citizens in their daily lives; I strongly support the President, in the authority which Congress gave him to battle terrorism at home and abroad to protect the American way of life. However, I cannot support these protections if we weaken individual civil liberties, limit the ability of citizens to know what our government is doing in their name, and gut worker rights to accomplish these objectives.
- I was very encouraged by the initial steps taken by the various House Committees as we began crafting the legislation to implement the President's proposal for the new department. Unfortunately, the final product of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security bypassed much of the early outstanding bipartisan work of the House.
- Mr. Speaker, the bill considered and passed by the Select Committee that we consider today does not include many sound and sensible provisions passed by the committees with expertise. In addition, the Select Committee added a number of flawed and controversial provisions, which were neither proposed by the President nor considered by the committees of jurisdiction. Creating a brand new cabinet level Department of Homeland Security is something that should require months and months of research,
committee work, and understanding to properly ensure initiatives are in place to reduce risk and respond to terrorists' attacks.
- These last two days have been very frustrating. Although a bipartisan group has tried to correct many of H.R. 5005's shortcomings, the leadership has decided not to improve this bill. We repeatedly tried to fix this bill so that a nearly unanimous majority could support final passage. Unfortunately, that will not be the case.
- Mr. Speaker, there are several troublesome provisions in this bill, H.R. 5005, which raise questions as to its ability to secure the homeland, its ability to keep Congress and the American people adequately apprised of governmental activities, and its ability to protect the rights of the department's new employees.
- The House defeated an amendment to protect the civil service rights of the nearly 170,000 federal employees who will move to the new department. H.R. 5005 also failed to protect federal whistle-blowers that might uncover problems or inadequacies in the new department. We also have reduced access to government documents for average Americans by restricting Freedom of Information Act requests, which are critical to our open form of government. We also failed to approve a provision to strike an
extension of the airline baggage-screening deadline .
- I believe we in Congress must do everything in our power to strengthen our borders and take the necessary steps to ensure that the events of September 11th never occur again. However, the bill before us takes many unnecessary steps in the name of Homeland Security. Unfortunately, for these and other reasons, I cannot support final passage of this legislation.
- Our efforts during these last two days were not done in vain. What we were able to do, Mr. Speaker, is highlight many areas of this legislation that must be improved during Conference.
- We tried to protect our tradition of open and accountable government. We opposed efforts to gratuitously protect irresponsible corporations, including those that incorporate offshore to avoid paying their share of the war on terrorism and those who knowingly make faulty products.
- We opposed efforts to retain the President's plan to dismantle civil service protections and guaranteeing that the new department will not have the best possible workforce.
- We opposed efforts to create a huge, costly, and inefficient 1950s style government bureaucracy that will likely take years before it functions properly.
- The attempts to strengthen this legislation were undertaken to make the American people safer and ensure that those Americans who work each day in this new Department have the tools, securities, and worker protections in place, as other federal workers, to battle terrorism and keep the homeland safe.