Thad Cochran: “In fact, I can answer that question partially. I looked at the legislative notice that was published back in September…”

“In fact, I can answer that question partially. I looked at the legislative notice that was published back in September when we had the bill on the Senate floor. We are increasing by 9.2 percent the spending that goes to the Department of Homeland Security overall. So by withholding this funding--we are into the new fiscal year as the Senator points out--we are allowing individual programs administered by the Department of Homeland Security to suffer. We are requiring them to give up, in effect, the increases that have already been approved by this Senate and in the conference report on the Homeland Security appropriations bill. Some of the programs, for example, that have been increased substantially are Project Bioshield, the Transportation Security Administration activities, the U.S. Coast Guard. Those are fully funded at the administration's requested level, which were substantially increased over the last fiscal year. So this is causing real harm, and the Senator makes that point. I point out specifically how it is causing the harmful results: new technologies to enhance security of our country by identifying people coming into the country who are using visas. We have new technologies now that can be used to screen and to make sure people are who the visa says they are. This is something that is not going to be utilized for this period of time in the new fiscal year because the increases in funding are not being made available. So this is really serious.…”