Kendrick Meek: “I think the Rangel substitute does a lot to help this bill. I am in support of the Rangel substitute and am opposed to…”

“I think the Rangel substitute does a lot to help this bill. I am in support of the Rangel substitute and am opposed to the bill in its current form. First of all, Customs officials do need protection. We do need the agents of the Customs department to receive protection. The government is the one who should feel the full brunt of this. So we want to be sure our Customs agents are protected. I do not take a second seat to anyone and I yield to no one in my support of the war against terrorism, but I refuse to accept government agents engaging in misconduct as a good faith method, in that the standards many times are too subjective, and we have seen it in law enforcement all around. We make the standards so vague and subjective that, when people abuse them, we are not able to bring them to task. These things are not grounded in the law. So we have to be very careful, and that is what the Rangel substitute does. Secondly, we do not need to expand the search that the Postal authorities are doing without probable cause. The Postal Service opposes this provision, with good reason. Racial profiling is too rampant and too important now. I urge my colleagues that when there is any hint of anything that would lead to impropriety or abuse of the civil rights and human rights of any individual, we should oppose it. Therefore, I oppose this bill, and I support the Rangel substitute.”