Mike Thompson: “I support this amendment basically for the following reasons, in addition to what I said earlier: It seems the opponents…”

“I support this amendment basically for the following reasons, in addition to what I said earlier: It seems the opponents of this amendment--those who would create the new national Office for Combating Terrorism--take the position we need a coordinator to develop a strategy. But since this idea was first proposed, lots of things have happened. One is we are now on to the consideration of a large, new Department containing 22 agencies. Secondly, we have a strategy. In July, the President came forth with a national strategy. Now we have under consideration a large new Department taking in most of the agencies that will have a homeland security function, and we have a strategy that this new Department will be following in trying to implement the safety measures that we all know are needed. In addition, we still have a coordinator. We have someone to coordinate this new Department and those agencies which cannot be brought into the new Department, such as the Department of Defense and the FBI and other agencies. That is the Office of Homeland Security, under the leadership of Mr. Ridge.”