Haley Stevens: “There is no money earmarked. But money, as much as we could possibly put, is in the discretionary fund--and I think…”

“There is no money earmarked. But money, as much as we could possibly put, is in the discretionary fund--and I think almost every Senator has asked for money in this area: Vulnerability protection, disaster assistance programs, homeland security initiative at the University of Washington, University of Nebraska. Maybe I should read them all, when we look at it: College of William and Mary, George Mason, VMI, Utah, LSU, Wichita, Montana State, Colorado, University of Delaware, Brown University, University of Rhode Island, University of Georgia, University of New York, SUNI Maritime College. I could go on and on. Almost every college that has a capability of being involved in this assessment and determination of how to protect these facilities has asked to get involved. We could not do that. So we set up a fund and the Department will determine how many of these universities can lock together and give us the assessment that the General Accounting Office says is absolutely essential. If you take the money for something that might happen, how are you going to know when it does happen? This is the beginning of the homeland security assessment of threats and establishing an alert system. This amendment takes from both. I think that is absolutely wrong. I hope we will get other people to comment on this amendment. I understand the need. There is overwhelming need throughout the country for homeland security money.”