Joe Lieberman

Dean Koh is a brilliant scholar--one of the great legal minds of his generation.

It is a reflection of the bipartisan respect for Dean Koh that, when President Clinton nominated him... he was unanimously confirmed.

There has to be accountability. There has to be responsiveness.

It seemed to us that we had to at least guarantee that the person going into this position, so critical to the lives and safety of Americans at times of emergency, have had the basic experience to give us the confidence to believe that he…

Today, our Committee will consider the nomination of W. Craig Fugate to be Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The law requires that the FEMA Administrator have a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management and homeland security and at least 5 years of executive leadership and management experience.

I particularly want to welcome our friend Senator Mel Martinez, who will be introducing you.

I will give you my full support.

I do not think they have a positive place in Federal law enforcement as a general matter.

The issues and challenges facing ICE are considerable, and I want to continue the dialogue we have started in the confirmation process.

I will say that I am encouraged by some steps that Secretary Napolitano has taken thus far.

I think we are going to have to really spend some more effort and resources.

The extraordinary record of experience in emergency management that Mr. Fugate has is, of course, very important, and I want to say how historically important it is to this Committee and put it in some context.

I think that, as I said earlier, this is not a question of whether or not the agency detains people, but it is a question of who does it detain, how does it detain them, and are there better ways to do this--and I think there are--that are…

I am going to again introduce legislation, the Secure and Safe Asylum and Detention Act, to address these problems.

The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act--authored by Senator Collins and myself in 2006 to address the failures uncovered by this Committee's investigation into the response to Hurricane Katrina--requires that the FEMA…

Again, an encouraging response. Please keep in touch with that because I agree with you that there is just no sense, except for turf protection, for your agents not to have Title 21 authority.

I do not believe that these issues are insurmountable.

It represents a real threat in many ways to the United States.

I found it deplorable that people coming here asking for asylum based on political discrimination at home, religious discrimination, or other forms are subjected to this kind of detention while their cases are being determined.

I intend to focus on FPS. I think it is a very important part of what the Department does.

I have been frustrated over the last few years at the Department's failure to improve what I consider to be inhuman detention policies and conditions.

I am very pleased, I will say personally, that you have been nominated to lead ICE.

Senator Lieberman yesterday had a Committee field hearing in Arizona, and there some of the witnesses talked about the obstacles in Fusion Center participation.

I thank you for what you are doing every day on this challenge to our security and to our neighbor's security.