Cord Byrd: “I have learned with great disappointment that the Office of Management and Budget has yet to release more than $104…”

“I have learned with great disappointment that the Office of Management and Budget has yet to release more than $104 million included in this legislation by the Congress for the purpose of assisting the FBI in combating terrorism. These were funds that the FBI had asked the OMB to include in the supplemental in order to deal with various aspects of homeland security such as carrying out the FBI's new responsibility for rendering safe a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear incident in the United States. The funds were also requested by the FBI to make advances in areas such as DNA and other identification technologies, which offer opportunities to positively identify individuals and prevent terrorists, criminals, and other ineligible individuals from entering the United States, thus better securing our borders. I call upon the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to release these funds for the purposes identified by the FBI. This is a dangerous way to waste time. Nearly 5 months have already been wasted. These funds should be put to use for the purposes for which they were appropriated in order to better secure the homeland and combat terrorism.”