Chuck Schumer: “what I have been attempting to do in some of these amendments is look for our weakest pressure points because the…”

“what I have been attempting to do in some of these amendments is look for our weakest pressure points because the terrorists also know where we have done things, and they know where we have not done enough. A place where we are completely weak is truck security. We have seen that terrorists have used trucks to hurt us--in New York City at the World Trade Center in 1993, of course in Oklahoma City a few years later, and in Europe and around the world as well. A truck loaded with explosives can do terrible damage at a football stadium, at a skyscraper or another place that is heavily populated. The interesting thing is that technology does exist to track trucks the way we track airplanes. It is GPS. It is not very expensive. But since the truck market is so fragmented, no one company does it alone, even though many companies have GPS systems in their trucks, mainly for theft. We provide just $70 million, not very much, to develop and implement a system for identification and tracking only of hazardous material trucks--those that carry gasoline, explosives, chlorine--that could be used for terrible purposes. If we can't afford $70 million to do this-- and I disagree with my friend from New Hampshire, we are not doing enough now--then we ought to look into the mirror. I hope this amendment will be supported.”