The Public Record
Mr. Chairman, I suppose if it were an ideal world, I would prefer not to have staffing caps and would like to think I could trust an agency to manage the staffing. There is nothing about TSA that gives me that confidence. I have dealt with…
I, for one, had concerns when we created the Department of Homeland Security and put FEMA in it that it would mean that what was a very efficient, small, responsive governmental agency would get lost in the maze of the new Department. And…
Mr. Speaker, let me take a few minutes to talk about another provision in the bill which I think is important and it relates to the CAPPS2 system. TSA has been working on this system for almost a year, but there remains many unanswered…
When it comes to homeland security, the rhetoric flies fast and furious. Everyone wants a safer, better-prepared America against both terror threats and natural events like Hurricane Isabel. But our actions do not always match rhetoric. In…
No. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I was not an advocate of the position in the conference committee. I thought we made a mistake in changing it. To be fair, the language in the bill retains some money as a separate line item, and there…
First, let me indicate my strong agreement with the statement of the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss) that getting good information and getting it accurately out to our local units of government is incredibly important. We focus on…
Mr. Speaker, as we meet today on the eve of September 11, I am one Member who remains very concerned about America's safety and the safety of the flying public. We can and must do more. My motion is just one important step in the right…
No. We do have a river one but fairly small. So I think it would be fair to say we made a special effort to try to allocate more money to ports, that that will go to a limited part of the country.
Five hundred million. And this goes to a limited number of communities in the country?
reclaiming my time, as I read this amendment, this says, none of the funds can be used to provide assistance to any State or local government, entity, or official that does certain things. I do not quite understand the end of this, what…
And this amendment, as I understand it, would take some of this little money that we distribute throughout the country and say we are going to cut that from everyone. Where they are working, trying to coordinate expenditures to make most…
Which criteria that many of us have trouble understanding yet. The balance of the money flows by formula to the States, including the States that are eligible for this additional $500 million?
did I just hear correctly a little while ago that the Secretary's request of our committee for the high-threat urban grant was zero?
But as I read this, none of the funds made available in this act may be used to provide assistance to any State or local government or official that restricts any government entity or official from sending or receiving funds, and I am not…
But we find that when we raise threat levels in this country, the law enforcement and local responders are expected to respond throughout the country and they have the same problem over time, training, teaching people how to use new…
Mr. Chairman, one of the disappointments I had in this rule was it did not waive a point of order on what I thought was a very reasonable limitation on the development of CAPPS2. The provision is a moderate attempt to make sure that this…
we have a little trouble getting a precise understanding of what criteria are used.
But, Mr. Chairman, what I am trying to get at, I guess, is my understanding that you are saying that the old law applied to the INS; this law now applies to the Department of Homeland Security, which is 22 agencies rather than one agency.
Reclaiming my time, and this is money that local responders can use for buying new equipment in a coordinated fashion, in a State plan or for training to have them become equipped to meet the threats that may occur in this country?
Reclaiming my time, for those of us who come from the heartland of the country, we are having discussion over how much money should go to ports. We have allocated a significant amount, and others would like to allocate more. My assumption…
Mr. Speaker, in this institution of democracy there is always a small group of smart, talented, hardworking, honest people who labor anonymously behind the scenes. They are absolutely essential to the success of our form of government. Al…
Mr. Speaker, Minnesota is a hockey State. I think we are the premiere hockey State in the country, and it has been a great year for hockey in Minnesota. Most recently, we have been excited about the, I suppose what you call, surprising…
What is this language in the bill today? I read it, and it seems to me we are writing into law something about 31.8, that appears to be a smoke screen to make people feel good, then there is an exception for it which indicates and takes us…
This is confusing. I know that there is disagreement between House and Senate bills, but from all the interpretations of what we have been doing, I think it is clear that no one can dispute that if we want to spend money that has impact on…
In our previous continuing resolutions we were told we had an obligation limit of $31.8 billion.
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