Henry Waxman: “Mr. Chairman, while I agree that we need homeland security legislation, it is clear that the Federal departments are not…”

“Mr. Chairman, while I agree that we need homeland security legislation, it is clear that the Federal departments are not working together as they should to protect our Nation. The recent revelations of missed signals and failure to communicate at the FBI and the CIA illustrate how serious this problem is. Unfortunately, the bill we are considering today has serious flaws. In fact, I think it may well cause more problems than it solves. We are getting more bureaucracy and we are doing so at a tremendous cost to the taxpayers. According to the Congressional Budget Office, just creating and managing a new department will cost $4.5 billion, and this does not include additional spending that may be necessary to prevent terrorist attacks, reduce the Nation's vulnerability to attacks, and recover from any attacks. Now, if this money were used at the front lines of fighting terrorism instead of paying for a new bureaucracy, think how much better off we might be. There is an old adage that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it, but we may do exactly this in our headlong rush to create this new department.”