Bill Clinton: “this amendment--sponsored by myself and Senators Ensign, Lautenberg, Feinstein, Boxer, and Corzine--follows the…”

“this amendment--sponsored by myself and Senators Ensign, Lautenberg, Feinstein, Boxer, and Corzine--follows the recommendation in the 9/11 Commission. What it does is to put into our bill language that permits the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to allocate the money above the minimum that goes to all States. In other words, 38 percent of the money for homeland security will be distributed on a per capita basis to all States. The remaining 62 percent, which is the subject of my amendment, will be distributed as recommended by the 9/11 Commission and every other expert who has studied this issue on threat factors and risk assessments that will take into account matters such as population, population density, critical infrastructure, and such other factors as the Secretary considers appropriate. We have debated this on the floor for a number of years. I engaged in a colloquy about this back in July of 2003 when we were considering the Homeland Security appropriations. I have spoken on numerous occasions with Secretary Ridge. I know we have been given assurance that there would be developed some kind of threat matrix so we could take into account the full range of issues that should be considered. I am not in any way suggesting what those factors should be. I think food security should be among them. I think our petrochemical complexes should be among them. I think our laboratories in States such as New Mexico should be among them.”