Jim Saxton: “let me just begin, and I had to smile when my friend, the gentleman from New York, Charlie Schumer, and other speakers…”

“let me just begin, and I had to smile when my friend, the gentleman from New York, Charlie Schumer, and other speakers on this side characterized what the Republican Party is trying to do for national security as wimpish. I do not think anybody takes that as a credible statement. The provisions of this bill on aviation safety are certainly not wimpish. The provisions on Federal racketeering statutes and the use of them in regard to terrorist acts is not wimpish. The use of enhanced telephone technology to catch terrorists and know what they are doing is not wimpish. This is not a wimpish bill. In fact, it moves in the right direction. Mr. Speaker, I remember in 1990 then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney coming to the Committee on Armed Services and saying, the world is going to change, folks. The Soviet Union, the threats posed by the Soviet Union are going to diminish, and other threats will become more important. He was talking about regional threats and the threats posed by terrorism. On June 20, 21, and 22 of this year in Tehran a group of international terrorists met in a conference. They formed an organization known as the International Hezbollah, and they vowed to ratchet up terrorist acts against the West, particularly against the United States and our people overseas.”