Political Quotes

“I am very hopeful the funding in this bill will enable the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the heads of the various directorates and the other agencies that are funded in this bill--the Coast Guard and others--to carry out their responsibilities to improve the overall security of our homeland to protect against terrorist attacks, to try to anticipate terrorists attacks, and to recover from natural disasters. We have within this Department a wide range of functions and responsibilities, one of which has been identified in this amendment as, I suppose, being funded at too high a level because the offset that is contained is to take funds from one of these directorates and move it to the function of port security. It is a very difficult challenge to try to balance the competing interests within this Department to make sure each area is not only well staffed with people who know what they are doing, but that they have the funds to carry out their mission.”