David Skaggs: “I want to support this bill because I believe on balance it does meet vital national security needs. However, I do have…”

“I want to support this bill because I believe on balance it does meet vital national security needs. However, I do have some serious concerns about it. It is obviously essential to support the activities of the intelligence community as we seek to understand and confront a whole range of post-cold-war challenges, whether terrorism or weapons of mass destruction, environmental degradation, many other things. This bill provides budget authority for these important responsibilities. And we should also be under no illusion that, just because the cold war is over, that this country faces no traditional threats to our national security, at which intelligence capabilities need to be directed. I do have concern about the overall authorization level, as has already been pointed out. It exceeds substantially the amount requested by the President, the amount authorized and the amount appropriated for this fiscal year. In a time of tight budgets, when we are cutting environmental enforcement, education or any number of things, I would have preferred an authorization closer to the President's request.”