Pete Stark: “if there was any doubt, FEMA's performance during Hurricane Katrina proved the Department of Homeland Security's…”

“if there was any doubt, FEMA's performance during Hurricane Katrina proved the Department of Homeland Security's incompetence. I had hoped that more than 3 years after its creation, the Department would use common sense. But as DHS continues to violate Americans' civil liberties, pursue policies that make us no more secure, and misallocate funds, I cannot vote to throw good money after bad. H.R. 5441 will allow the TSA to spend $6.4 billion strip-searching grandmothers and small children. Yet multiple audits have found that despite this and other invasive techniques, the Department is no more likely to detect a weapon than were security personnel prior to September 11, 2001. Under this bill, DHS will continue to screen only 5 percent of port containers and virtually no air cargo. Wyoming will still get about $27.80 per capita in homeland security funding while California will receive only about $8.05. I shudder to think how FEMA will handle the next large earthquake in the Bay Area when they can't even handle a hurricane with a week's warning. I vote ``no'' to DHS's misplaced priorities and urge my colleagues to stop supporting a dysfunctional agency.”