Chuck Schumer: “I thank the Senator, our leader from West Virginia, for the package he has put together. As somebody who chairs a…”

“I thank the Senator, our leader from West Virginia, for the package he has put together. As somebody who chairs a subcommittee that oversees the FBI, I would like to say to the Senator from West Virginia that when the FBI came and testified before us, and the Senator from West Virginia asked them what their No. 1 hinderance was in fighting the war on terrorism, they said it was lack of resources. Their computers --I would just like to ask the Senator if he is familiar with this--in one part of the FBI cannot talk to the computers in the other part of the FBI, let alone talk to the computers of the CIA, the NSA, the INS, the ATF, and all of the other agencies. I would like, before asking the question, to compliment the Senator. This is desperately needed. We are at war on our homefront as much as we are at war in Afghanistan. I think it was Vice President Cheney who said we will lose more people on the homefront than on the battlefront. So I cannot see why we would not do this when our own people throughout America are at risk. But I would like to ask the Senator if he has heard of this almost primitive computer structure at the FBI--that the computers are not able to talk to one another within the agency, let alone to others? And would the package deal with that problem in every way that the FBI might need?”