Political Quotes

“I rise in support of the Wu amendment that seeks to permit FEMA to invite an official from one of the Department of Energy's national laboratories to participate as a nonvoting member of the Dam Safety Review Board. Our national laboratories' involvement in counterterrorism and anti-terrorism programs began years ago as a part of our work to develop technology to protect nuclear weapons and nuclear energy facilities against terrorists. Much of this technology also proved valuable for securing other important facilities and is now helping to fight terrorism throughout the world and to meet the Nation's homeland security needs. The national labs can assist the Dam Safety Review Board and Dam Safety Task Force by providing technical support through modeling disaster scenarios in other related areas. In light of the Nation's need to protect our Nation's infrastructure, including dams, from possible terrorist attacks, including an official from the national labs on the Dam Safety Review Board will assist us in furthering these goals by providing technical support in computer modeling simulations and other related security support.”