Political Quotes

“it has been our hope that we could get the cooperation of the Senate in funding what are essential needs of the Department of Homeland Security for the balance of this fiscal year. In trying to determine what those amounts are for all of these new activities, the 22 agencies that have been folded into this new Department under the jurisdiction of Secretary Tom Ridge, we had hearings. We have questioned agency officials to determine how we could help support the administration's effort to improve the security of our homeland, to fund the activities of those agencies that are involved in the war effort in Iraq, such as the Coast Guard, to be sure that they could meet their responsibilities. We did this in a very careful and deliberate way, knowing full well that because of the concerns and the fears that exist throughout the country about terrorism attacks and because of the increase in the threat levels that from time to time are announced, there is no way we could assuage the concerns of everybody with just money. But money helps.”