Haley Stevens: “I give the Senator my assurance we will continue to work together to assure we maintain our constitutional role in the…”

“I give the Senator my assurance we will continue to work together to assure we maintain our constitutional role in the activities of this new Department. But I also feel it is absolutely necessary that this bill be passed this year because if it is not, regardless of the size of the bill, it will literally die at the end of December and we will have to start all over again. With the tensions facing the world and challenges our Government faces to maintain homeland security, it is absolutely essential we start forward. We have a slight disagreement on that. But I do believe this bill gives us a framework to work with this subject. I think the ongoing responsibility to assure the new Department will continue to be effective will primarily rest with the appropriations process. This will be an enormous demand, a new demand on our Treasury, to fund a wholly new type of homeland security. We are consolidating a whole series of agencies, hopefully bringing about some new efficiencies. But it will require increased money. Senator Byrd and I have, will continue to have, the role of seeing to it the Senate's operations with regard to the appropriations process are fully understood by the new homeland security department and its personnel, and that we will work effectively to see to it we fulfill our constitutional responsibility with regard to control of the people's money.”