Peter King: “To me, this is typical and symbolic of the bipartisanship which he has brought to the committee both as ranking member…”

“To me, this is typical and symbolic of the bipartisanship which he has brought to the committee both as ranking member and now as chairman. I thank him for that. And more than his personal kindness and generosity, let me also say that it is so vitally important that on issues such as this that there be bipartisan cooperation working across the aisle because all of our lives changed on September 11. All of us realized we had to change the way we did business, whether it was creating the Department of Homeland Security, whether it was creating the law enforcement agencies at all levels of government to cooperate, whether it meant adopting specific legislation on chemical plants or port security, or any of the other areas included within the umbrella of Homeland Security. But it also requires us to establish firmer relationships with our allies, finding areas of common ground among us and our allies, and that is what H.R. 884 will do.”