Political Quotes

“As chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, over the past 2 years, I have worked with the committee on a 5-year plan of enhancing technology and human skills within the intelligence community. It is our expectation that these investments will yield rich dividends in the intelligence community, to understand the terrorist threat to our Nation, better inform decisionmakers on policies that can defend against these threats, and take direct action against the terrorists. It should be no different at our Nation's seaports. Investing in security along our maritime borders is as vital as investing in our intelligence capabilities or our Nation's airports. But I am troubled by the prospects. The administration has shown no willingness to request any funding for our seaports. The administration's fiscal year 2002 and 2003 budgets contained no funding for seaport security. To date, all funding for enhancing security at our seaports has been as a result of congressional action on supplemental appropriation bills. Illustrative of this gap between congressional funding and the administration's funding is the fact that only $93 million was available from the Transportation Security Administration for over $700 million of seaport security grant requests. While this funding has aided some ports, comprehensive security improvements for all ports will cost significantly more.”