Barney Frank: “like my colleague from New York, I am glad we are getting something additional. This is symptomatic of this bill. It…”

“like my colleague from New York, I am glad we are getting something additional. This is symptomatic of this bill. It will provide too little money for a lot of very important programs. And we will be told, yes, it is a good program, but we do not have the money. I believe the members of the subcommittee did the best possible job. I commend them for doing the best possible job in the circumstances. The problem is that the majority created the circumstances. This is the consequence of too many tax cuts with wars at the same time, and a budget that then leaves too little money. So in case after case after case, we will be told, you are right, that is a very important function, we do not have enough money. This particularly troubles me because I would like to build the consensus in the country for the kind of vigorous law enforcement that we need to protect ourselves in the face of this new threat. When the oversight board on civil liberties and privacy that the 9/11 Commission recommended is starved for money, you lose the opportunity to achieve that balance that would increase support for law enforcement. And while no one says it is a bad idea, except maybe the Vice President, but he did not say that openly, I just guessed, no one says that it is doing a bad job. There is too little money left because the priorities are tax cuts, the war in Iraq, and then everything else gets stiffed. And this is an example of a very good program.…”