Joe Lieberman: “S. 4 is a direct response not just to the original 9/11 Commission in 2004, which was the basis of the Intelligence…”

“S. 4 is a direct response not just to the original 9/11 Commission in 2004, which was the basis of the Intelligence Reform Terrorism Prevention Act of that year, but it is a response directly to the appeal the 9/11 Commission issued in December of 2005 that there was unfinished business. That appeal was not only seconded but echoed and amplified by the various organizations representing families who lost loved ones on 9/11 in the terrorist attack of that day. So this legislation before the Senate now, about to go to final amendment consideration and adoption, includes improvements in information sharing--the critical question of connecting the dots before the terrorists can strike us so we can stop them from doing so. It creates a new dedicated grant fund to support interoperable communications equipment--complicated words which simply mean whether in a crisis, a potential terrorist attack, or a natural disaster such as Katrina, our firefighters, our police officers, our emergency responders can talk to each other as they were not able to do on 9/11. This is a balanced, progressive recommendation to solve once and for all by legislation the ongoing dispute about how to distribute homeland security grant funding. We have improved the security requirements of the so-called visa waiver program. We have strengthened the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board and done much else. There is a lot constructive here.…”