Frank Lautenberg: “before we vote on this amendment, I am reminded that attacks have been thwarted in three locations. And if attacks have…”

“before we vote on this amendment, I am reminded that attacks have been thwarted in three locations. And if attacks have been thwarted, that suggests there is a certain risk attached to those locations. One is the World Trade Center, another is LAX Airport, and the third is the Space Needle in Seattle. As far as I know, there were no attacks threatened in Wyoming and many other places around the country. So when we look at this issue, I think we ought to get focused. First of all, Secretary Ridge is the arbiter of the discretionary fund. He is the expert. He gives out this additional money. We, the Senate--Democrats and Republicans--nominated him to make these decisions. If the nondiscretionary part of the budget runs about $28 billion, I don't know that these particular accounts are the places where we have to go to get the funding. And we can ask Secretary Ridge to be aware that we are most concerned because of the high-risk nature of the New York/New Jersey region. I hope in this case we will take seriously what we talk about so much: That we cannot be secure, no matter how good we are in Afghanistan, no matter how good we are in Iraq--and we have been terrific. Our people have fought valiantly. They have done what is asked of them. There are not enough of them. And when someone suggested there were not enough of them, such as General Shinseki, he was kind of kicked out of the Corps. So we have to look at this and ask, what constitutes security?”