Susan Collins: “I again thank the Senator for her excellent statement, for her leadership, and for getting us to where we are today. It…”

“I again thank the Senator for her excellent statement, for her leadership, and for getting us to where we are today. It has been a long journey, but with her leadership we were able to craft this bill, work out the many compromises, and come to the floor. I hope we can do this bill relatively quickly. It has been the subject of an awful lot of discussion and review, and it would be terrific if we can show the American people that we can act in a bipartisan way on an issue that really matters to their security. It is appropriate that the Presiding Officer tonight is the Senator from Virginia, Senator Allen. I know that port security has been a major priority of his. Earlier in my statement, I mentioned that California, New York, and Virginia are the three States that receive the greatest number of containers, although actually I would think that Washington State has to be in there, too, given the size of Seattle and Tacoma's ports as well. So I know they should be in there as well. But Virginia is a major player in port security, and I want to commend the Senator from Virginia for his leadership on this issue. I know that this has been of great concern to him. He has talked to me as this bill has been making its way through the process, and I publicly thank him for caring about this issue and making it a priority as well. Mr.…”