Sylvester Turner: “the amendment that I wanted to offer which is subject to a point of order would try to remedy a problem which I think we…”

“the amendment that I wanted to offer which is subject to a point of order would try to remedy a problem which I think we all understand exists, and that is we are continuing to be under the threat that some terrorist group will ship into the United States in a cargo container or by truck a nuclear device or a dirty bomb. I want to commend the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers) and the committee for adding money to this item over and above what the President requested. The committee added $50 million to help purchase radiation portal monitors. But unfortunately, as the committee's own report states, the President's request includes 165 additional radiation portal monitors, and the committee is aware of the need for 1,000. What I was attempting to do by this amendment is to increase the funding for radiation portal devices so this next fiscal year we could fully deploy radiation portal monitors in all of our ports to be sure that we are prepared to defend against the possibility of a terrorist group putting in a container some nuclear device or dirty bomb. I recognize it is a significant increase, but I believe in light of the urgency that it is the right thing to do rather than continue on what would probably be a 2- to 3-year program to fully deploy.”