Roy Blunt: “today marks 13 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. At that moment, I do not think Americans would…”

“today marks 13 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. At that moment, I do not think Americans would have been surprised that we would still be dealing with that 13 years later. But in the 13 years that have passed, there have been moments when we wanted to hope this had passed from us, that somehow it was no longer a danger. But it is a danger today as it was a danger then. We clearly should not forget those who lost their lives on 9/11. We continue and should continue to be grateful to our men and women in uniform. I appreciate the service the Presiding Officer provided to the country wearing that uniform. Intelligence professionals out there are doing what they are supposed to do. The first responder community is working diligently to be ready to respond in ways that keep us safe. I remember well, as others do, one of the things we learned on 9/11 was that those first responders were not properly linked in a way that allowed them to communicate with each other as they generally now are able to. The response they had was probably adequate in Washington and New York, might not have been adequate in terms of capability in some other place. But even in Washington and New York, we found the firemen could not talk to the policemen and the policemen could not talk to other first responders. We have done a lot to try to close that gap in a way that further protects those who protect us.…”