Bob Barr: “when American leaders convened on Monday, December 8, 1941, they knew three things: They knew America was at war; they…”

“when American leaders convened on Monday, December 8, 1941, they knew three things: They knew America was at war; they knew that the mechanism that had been designed to alert America to impending danger had failed; and they knew that the mechanisms that we had in place at the time to respond to emergencies had failed. They indeed faced a crisis, much as the crisis that we faced the day after the terrorist attacks on this Nation on September 11. We knew that the existing mechanism designed to alert America to danger and to impending attacks had failed, we knew we were at war, and we knew that the mechanisms designed to respond quickly to emergencies in this Nation were not adequate to meet the challenge. We owe it to this President the same as our forefathers owed and gave to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in December of 1941 the power and the flexibility to respond to a threat that our Nation had never faced before. Is the mechanism that this President is proposing and that we have before us in the Department of Homeland Security perfect? No, it is not. But it does grant the President the flexibility that he needs to respond to an ever-changing threat and to make those responsible for meeting that threat within our shores accountable. Without flexibility and the mechanisms that we provide this President, there can be no accountability, and without accountability, whatever mechanisms we put in place, no matter how much money we put behind them, they will fail.”