Harry Reid: “this amendment deals with our efforts to secure hometowns. First, I thank the chairman and ranking member of the…”

“this amendment deals with our efforts to secure hometowns. First, I thank the chairman and ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee for their efforts to bring a responsible bill to the Senate floor. As I have said to both the chairman and ranking member of this subcommittee, I think the bill's biggest problem is simply a lack of money. They did not have an easy task. The subcommittee did not have an easy task. The full Appropriations Committee did not have an easy task with this new subcommittee, created as a result of the 9/11 terror act. The subcommittee allocations this year have made it a challenge for each subcommittee. Unfortunately, the budget that Congress passed this year has made it nearly impossible to address all the needs of our Nation's emergency responders. A recent report, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, and directed by Warren Rudman, who, of course, we know is a longtime Senator from the State of New Hampshire, found that our Nation will need an additional--let's round it off to $100 billion--basically what he said is more than $98 billion over the next 5 years to meet all of our hometown safety needs, an additional $20 billion each year. Because of this fact, I am on the floor today to offer an amendment that will attempt to address one of the areas that I believe we have not sufficiently addressed; namely, the tourists that come to many of our Nation's cities.”