Political Quotes

“The original amendment that Senator Lieberman submitted to the underlying bill, H.R. 5005, to establish the Department of Homeland Security, contained a section that would have established an Office of Risk Analysis and Assessment within the Directorate of Science and Technology. Recognizing the successes of this Miami-Dade County pilot project and the tremendous contribution that a comprehensive, risk-based prioritization process that decision-makers could use to allocate scarce national, State, and local resources to the War on Terrorism, Senator Durbin and I offered an amendment that would have enhanced and strengthened this risk assessment function. This amendment would have required the Department of Homeland Security to establish a comprehensive, risk-based process for prioritizing and allocating the Federal, State, and local activities and resources necessary to combat terrorism and to provide for homeland security response. It also would have authorized $15 million in appropriations for Fiscal Year 2003, and such sums as necessary in subsequent years, for the development of the risk-based prioritization process. Unfortunately, the current version of the Homeland Security Act before the Senate does not contain our amendment.”