David Weldon: “Mr. Chairman, why are we passing this bill? Why are we creating this Department of Homeland Security? As I see it, we…”

“Mr. Chairman, why are we passing this bill? Why are we creating this Department of Homeland Security? As I see it, we are doing it because if we are ever attacked again, we want to be able to respond better; but more importantly, we never want to be attacked again. We also believe that this is going to be a very long fight. Why else would we be rearranging all of these agencies like this. We certainly would not be doing this if we thought that this was just going to last for a few short years. It is important to note that this is not primarily an issue of protecting real estate, although the damage to the Pentagon and the loss of the Twin Towers hurt us, and hurt us badly. What hurt us much, much more is the loss of lives. I knew someone who was killed September 11. Many Members knew people as well. Thousands of innocents are dead. We all agree, never again do we want to see Americans killed like we did on 9/11. I ask Members, what is the single most effective thing that we can do to prevent another terrorist attack on American soil. I think the answer is obvious, never let another terrorist into our Nation, a difficult task, granted, but nothing less than that should be our goal. It should be our mandate.”