Political Quotes

“now is the time to implement the unfinished recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. I commend Senators Lieberman and Collins for their leadership and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for its work on this important legislation. More than 5 years after 9/11 despite tens of billions of dollars spent America's ports, rails, airports, borders, nuclear powerplants and chemical plants still are not completely safe. It has been more than 2 years since the 9/11 Commission issued its final recommendations, and here we are, today, still debating the same issues. This legislation builds upon previous efforts to enhance homeland security and includes several critical provisions to allocate homeland security resources based on risk, ensure that first responders have interoperable communications equipment, and improve government-wide information sharing. I especially am pleased to note three provisions included in this bill that I have championed for some time. This legislation specifies that States can use Federal grants to design, conduct, and evaluate mass evacuation plans and exercises. While most cities and States have evacuation plans, the lack of training drills and exercises makes it difficult to address problems and work out solutions before lives are at risk in a real emergency. As we learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, there is no substitute for being prepared. We may only have one chance to get it right.”