Political Quotes

“It has not been missed on a number of us as well that since September 11, we have spent an awful lot of time focusing on homeland defense and first responders and appropriately so. It was not the FBI, the CIA, the FAA, or the Armed Services that responded first in the New York, in the fields of Pennsylvania, or the Pentagon. It was our frontline individuals. I have met with them. If we talk to people back in our home district, and they will quote us. Take a look at the budget as it exists today in the Federal Government as it relates to terrorism and how we are prepared, we have appropriated about $8.9 billion, only $300 million of which gets outside of the Beltway. To the gentleman's point about the reluctance of the airlines and the need for the Federal Government to step forward here, is that this truly is a frontline initiative that is going to need the funding. Now, if that requires, as the gentleman rightly points out, $2 or $3 more to make sure the cockpit is secure, to make sure we have the kind of technology available at our airports so the people feel safe and secure, I think the American public needs to hear that debate and that dialogue.”