Mark Udall: “as we prepare for the debate on taxes and spending, I want to call attention to an article in Sunday's Denver Post on…”

“as we prepare for the debate on taxes and spending, I want to call attention to an article in Sunday's Denver Post on the threat of shoulder-fired missiles to our airliners. The article quotes security experts as saying this threat is ``nearly impossible to defend against,'' and points out that equipping the U.S. commercial airline fleet with jammers or decoys could cost up to $10 billion. There are other threats, as well. We need to do much more to prevent ship containers that would be used to smuggle in weapons of mass destruction. Of course, we cannot prevent every conceivable threat to our homeland security. We have to set priorities and we have to fund those priorities. One thing is for sure: when the President proposed and this Congress passed a budget resolution that includes more than $1 trillion in tax cuts, we cannot, in good conscience, tell the American people we are funding these priorities. Madam Speaker, our States need help in beefing up security. When our homeland security alert system goes to orange, our State budgets go into the red. I fear this President and this Republican Congress are sacrificing homeland security and other needs in favor of deep tax cuts that will have little positive effect on our economy. We need to do better.”