Political Quotes

“I thank Mr. King of New York for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my legislation, the Fusion Center Enhancement Act of 2017. I thank Mr. King of New York and Chairman McCaul for working with me to introduce this legislation. The purpose of my bill is to clarify and enhance the partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and the National Network of Fusion Centers. The bill amends the existing statute to update the Department's responsibilities for sharing information with State and local law enforcement and other emergency personnel within the National Network of Fusion Centers. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, State and local governments created fusion centers as a way to communicate Federal homeland security information to State and local law enforcement officials, as well as fuse State and locally collected information with Federal intelligence. Congress supported this partnership by mandating that the Office of Intelligence and Analysis within the Department of Homeland Security coordinate and share information with fusion centers. There are now 78 State and locally owned fusion centers across the country. I would especially like to recognize the work of the Pennsylvania Criminal Intelligence Center, PaCIC, which is run by the Pennsylvania State Police. In 2015, our fusion center received the Fusion Center of the Year Award from the National Fusion Center Association.…”