Collin Peterson: “This authorization bill has a lot of good things in it, and I want to commend the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Goss)…”

“This authorization bill has a lot of good things in it, and I want to commend the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Goss) and the ranking member, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman) and my colleagues for the work that they have put together in this bill. But this bill just is not strong enough. It does not fully authorize funds for the intelligence community's key counterterrorism operations. It authorizes less than a third of the funds that the intelligence agency needs for key counterterrorism operations next year, and that is just not the right thing to do when the Nation is under threat from terrorism. The administration has said that they are going to send down another supplemental request next year, but there is ample evidence that al Qaeda is plotting to strike us again this year, next year and into the future. This bill leaves 3 to 4 months open funding before a supplemental bill can get through this Congress. If there is another terrorist attack, do we want the next 9/11 commission to find that the Congress failed in our duty to fully authorize funding for counterterrorism? I think not.”