Thomas Daschle: “I will have a lot more to say about nominations in coming days, but I want to focus, if I may, on just one matter that I…”

“I will have a lot more to say about nominations in coming days, but I want to focus, if I may, on just one matter that I think deserves real attention this month. I have also discussed this matter with the majority leader. It has to do with the recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission. On November 27, 2002, when the President signed the law that created the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, he said: I expect that the Commission's final report will contain important recommendations for steps that can be taken to improve our preparedness for and responses to terrorist attacks in the future. Twenty months, over 1,000 interviews, 12 public hearings, millions of pages of documents reviewed later, the Commission has put together those important recommendations--41 in all. Few of the recommendations are new. Many are obvious. Yet none are law. The ideas are there. The leadership has been lacking. It is up to us, with the time we have now, to provide that leadership. Congress is back in session for less than 2 months. The single most important thing we can do is make the American agenda the Senate's agenda, and we need to put security first. That means putting at the top of our legislative agenda the two items that carry with them an urgency that is unique to our time and our challenges: the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and the funding necessary to increase homeland security.”