Political Quotes

“this $77.9 billion supplemental appropriations bill is the largest ever considered by Congress. Yet, it still fails to address our most critical need of ``hometown'' security. The lack of adequate funding to protect our hometowns exposes the United States to greater risks than those posed by Saddam Hussein. This bill provides less than half of an estimated $9 billion need for the safety of our ports, transportation systems, water supplies, and first responders. It even falls short of what the administration requested for homeland security. Nationwide, cities are spending $70 million a week to protect and prepare themselves from potential attacks at a time when state and local governments are already crippled by economic conditions. In the last two weeks since the war in Iraq began, my hometown of Portland, Oregon has spent nearly a million dollars to respond to the heightened security alert. As the State of Oregon struggles to keep schools open and to provide medical care for the neediest people, it is incomprehensible that we are not fulfilling our responsibility at the federal level to help fund critical homeland security needs. A Democratic amendment that would have added $5.5 billion for homeland security and $300 million specifically for metropolitan security needs, would have provided Oregon an additional $4 million to secure, protect, and prepare our ports, our hospitals, and our first responders against potential terrorist attacks.”