Jeff Duncan: “I realize that almost everyone in the Congress is going to vote to create the new Department of Homeland Security, but I…”

“I realize that almost everyone in the Congress is going to vote to create the new Department of Homeland Security, but I am afraid all this new Department is going to do is make the government bigger, more bureaucratic and more expensive and the country will not be any safer. In yesterday's "Congress Daily," we read that the Congressional Budget Office has estimated it will cost $43 billion just to implement the new Department. The New York Times on June 23 had a column which said the proposed Department contains "elements so big that even a fee-hungry Wall Street investment banker might have hesitated to propose it." William Schneider, in the "National Journal," said it will "simply add another layer of bureaucracy. Will adding another layer of government at the top make a great deal of difference? Not if the problem is at the bottom." Tony Blankley, in Wednesdays's Washington Times said, "Congress should slow down, be more deliberative . . . Perhaps some bill can be cobbled together at such breakneck speed, but not the bill that this country needs." Mr. Speaker, we should not have to create a new cabinet-level Department just to get Federal agencies to cooperate with each other.”