James M. Jeffords: “Mark Twain once said. ``Always do right--this will gratify some people and astonish the rest.'' I rise today to explain…”

“Mark Twain once said. ``Always do right--this will gratify some people and astonish the rest.'' I rise today to explain why I believe voting against this bill is the right thing to do. Of the may reasons to vote against the bill, I will focus on three-- the bill's treatment of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the bill's treatment of the Freedom of Information Act, and the process used to create this new Department. With the passage of this Homeland Security legislation, we will destroy the Federal Emergency Management Agency, losing years of progress toward a well-coordinated Federal response to disasters. As it now exists, FEMA is a lean, flexible agency receiving bipartisan praise as one of the most effective agencies in government. But it hasn't always been that way. Throughout the 1980s, FEMA's focus on Cold War civil defense preparedness left the Agency ill-prepared to respond to natural disasters. The Congressional chorus of critics decried the Agency's misguided focus and reached a crescendo after bungled responses to Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. One of FEMA's leading Congressional critics, then-Representative Tom Ridge said in 1988, ``I was convinced that somewhere along the way, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had lost its sense of mission.'' Over the last decade, refocusing the agency's mission and priorities on natural disasters has left the agency well-equipped to respond to all types of disasters.”