Joe Lieberman: “Well, as I read your amendment, in the Directorate of Border and Transportation Protection, what your amendment would do…”

“Well, as I read your amendment, in the Directorate of Border and Transportation Protection, what your amendment would do is first remove the definition of the mission of that directorate, and then it would eliminate all this underneath and say to the executive branch: Come back--incidentally, not by February 3, but not before February 3--and tell us what you want in this directorate. The same is true of the Critical Infrastructure Directorate or the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate. So everything below what I have called the attic is eliminated, and basically these are generals without soldiers. These are admirals without sailors. They are just the top executives, and they have to wait until the administration makes the recommendations--not before the dates which you have set, and until the Congress acts. And we know Congress has a lot of ways to not act, if it chooses not to. So the Senator may disagree with the structure, obviously. That is not only his right, I understand if he does, but this was our best judgment as to how to make homeland security work. I just say that I do believe your amendment takes the heart out of our recommendation and delays drastically the date by which we would have a Department of Homeland Security protecting the American people. That is why I oppose it.”