Sam Gibbons: “Mr. Chairman, I rise not only as a cosponsor of this bill and also supporter of the bill but also to urge my colleagues…”

“Mr. Chairman, I rise not only as a cosponsor of this bill and also supporter of the bill but also to urge my colleagues to support this vital legislation as we vote on it today in this body. There has been a growing theme, Mr. Chairman, that Congress must take this opportunity to address the lack of information sharing among some of our Federal agencies. As a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I have heard testimony about how some of these agencies do not share information in a way that best protects our homeland. To put it another way, not all of the dots are being connected. Internally, some agencies, like the FBI, may connect some of the dots, the CIA may connect some of the dots, and the Border Patrol and Customs may connect some of the dots. But if all of our efforts fail to present a complete picture, we are likely to face a tragedy perhaps worse than those we faced on September 11. The current stovepipe barriers that prevent timely information sharing must stop. Never before in our Nation's history has communication sharing among our national security agencies been as imperative nor as important as it is today.”