Bob Filner: “I rise on behalf of the towns and cities along the southern border with Mexico in our Nation. These areas are dying…”

“I rise on behalf of the towns and cities along the southern border with Mexico in our Nation. These areas are dying economically and need our assistance now. In the wake of the events of September 11, this country has embarked upon unprecedented procedures to increase our domestic security, and those procedures are proper. We must have a new sense of preparedness; we must have a new sense of being on guard in this dangerous time of the 21st century. But as we increase our security efforts, we have not taken the steps to address the effects on our economy and on our quality of lives as we take those steps. Yes, we must be prepared and, yes, we have to take these security measures and, yes, we are going to have inconveniences that we have never experienced before, but let us think these out thoroughly and take the steps to increase our resources, if necessary, to make up for the problems caused by the increased security. We have grounded, for example, much of general aviation around this country, causing incredible hardships on one sector of our economy. We can think that through and change that situation. We bailed out the airlines, but all of the businesses and the economy related to airline flight, whether travel agencies or rental cars or hotels, and all the people associated with staffing those areas have been laid off, those businesses are in trouble, and yet, this Congress has taken no steps to help them.”