Chuck Schumer: “If I might, I understand there is a lot of money for homeland security, and I understand there are huge needs. I…”

“If I might, I understand there is a lot of money for homeland security, and I understand there are huge needs. I appreciate that my colleague said this is an important subject and probably needs to be done, but he has been around here much longer than I have. I have been in the House 18 years and now in the Senate 4. But in my experience, something like this that has no lobby behind it, has no interest pushing for it, no State or city is going to lobby, no group is going to lobby, no company is going to lobby, no union is going to lobby--in my experience, unless you earmark a certain amount of money-- and I am not out to increase the budget. If my friend from Alaska would be willing to take a part of that $24 billion and earmark $150 million for this subject, I would be happy to withdraw the amendment. I don't want to increase the budget. My worry is, even though we say we have a lot of money in homeland security, in the scheme of things, this may not be funded. I am obsessed with this issue. I think this is the greatest danger we can face in the country, and I am worried we will not do it.”