Sean Patrick Maloney: “Right after 9/11, the Congress had never been more united and determined to work together in a bipartisan way to keep…”

“Right after 9/11, the Congress had never been more united and determined to work together in a bipartisan way to keep America safe from further attacks. We got a great deal done in a short period of time. It was a proud moment in this body's history. Unfortunately, it did not last long enough. But today, the last act of this session of Congress, passing this intelligence reform and anti-terrorism bill, will be a heartening reminder to the American people that the two parties can work together and live up to the ideal that was so often repeated after 9/11: united we stand. Mr. Speaker, 9/11 made the Cold War politics of containment obsolete. We all knew we had to change and modernize our intelligence network to be more agile, more proactive, to connect the dots across the agencies in order to protect and anticipate attacks. That is the kind of network that our new intelligence director will be able to lead. This is a true anti-terrorism bill that will harden our borders, tighten our visa restrictions, and strengthen our first responders: air, cargo, and transport security. The next Congress still needs to pass key recommendations to strengthen our security, but this is a big step forward. I want to thank the President, the minority leader, the Speaker and his Chief of Staff, Scott Palmer, for their dogged efforts to give this country this wonderful holiday gift.”