Sylvester Turner

I am a cosponsor of the REAL ID Act that calls for necessary reforms in our driver's license processes to make it harder for terrorists to obtain driver's license to use them for acts of violence in our country. Driver's licenses can be…

when the processes that are meant to guarantee our freedoms are abused, they are weakened in meaning and the rights and privileges that they are meant to protect are placed in peril. Like the person who cried wolf for attention, who risked…

I am pleased that the report contains more funding than was requested by the President. However, it is clear that this conference report does not contain the level of resources needed to ensure that the Department of Homeland Security, our…

I think our complaints are easy to understand. We feel very strongly that the 9/11 Commission presented us with a package of 41 recommendations that the Commission and their cochairs all said are important. H.R. 10 only fully implements 11…

there is no example any better of the failure of the administration to make America safe than is illustrated by the amendment offered by my colleague from Texas today. What the amendment says is that we need 2,500 more bed spaces so that…

I will vote for the amendment because I believe it is based on a sincere intent to solve a serious problem. But I was simply pointing out that it provides no funding. The gentleman's Committee on Appropriations only provided funding for…

I rise to respond to the remarks of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood) who I have the highest respect for, but I think it would be a great mistake to lead the American people to believe that we have done all we should be doing to…

Mr. Speaker, I think Members on both sides of the aisle have the same intention, that is, to make America as safe as it needs to be, but I do think there is a very different view of what it will take to ensure the safety of the American…

I think many of us are dismayed by the lack of preparedness 3 years after 9/11 at a time when our government tells us every day that we are faced with another terrorist threat, even estimating that we may be attacked between now and the…

I offered a substitute, which I believe is much stronger in preventing frivolous lawsuits than the bill offered to the House. In addition, it preserves the right that was mentioned earlier to sue a foreign corporation, which is jeopardized…

This amendment, creating a sunset process, has been successful in many of our States. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady) and I have had personal experience with it in our State, where we have been able to eliminate unnecessary agencies…

this House is entitled to have an open debate and an open vote on raising the debt ceiling. Any family or any business or corporation that applies for debt or to be able to borrow money is going to have to apply for the credit and going to…

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…

I want to say I think we have all seen the pitfalls tonight of these formula-based funding formulas that divide this House along regional, urban, and rural lines. I want to mention something that the gentleman from Kentucky (Chairman…

We all know that securing our borders while maintaining the flow of people and commerce is one of the central challenges of our new Department of Homeland Security. We are clearly investing in technology to achieve our goals, but we all…

Mr. Chairman, all of us in this Chamber know that we have to work together in a bipartisan way to make the homeland as safe as it needs to be from the threat of terrorism. We also know that we are a country at war against al Qaeda and…

This legislation, I think, does something that needs to be done, that should be done; and I think our former colleague, Congressman Charles Wilson, could think of nothing that he would rather for this Congress to do than to put his name on…

Let me say first that this amendment is not about friendship. We are clearly friends with the People's Republic of China and the people of Taiwan, and let there be no mistake about that. Let me also say that this amendment is not about…

I rise in support of our troops and in support of this defense authorization bill, but I urge my colleagues to be up front with the American people about the true cost of our operations in Iraq. The supplemental $25 billion included in…

I am greatly disturbed that we are debating a $275 billion transportation measure without taking strong action in this bill to increase security in our rail and transit systems. Three weeks ago, a terrorist group related to al Qaeda…

we are on this floor today trying to get our financial house back in order, trying to get this House to adopt a very simple, straightforward rule requiring us to pay as we go that has already been adopted by the Senate. And it is really…

it does not happen very often on the floor of this House where a bill comes forward that has many good provisions in it, but there is one provision that is so damaging and so harmful and so unfair that it causes us to oppose an otherwise…

for years the pleas of our hurting seniors fell on the deaf ears of our Republican majority until one day our Republican friends were struck with an ingenious idea, wrapping a plan to privatize Medicare into a deceptive package called…

the designation of two Federal Aviation Administration buildings in Washington, DC, in honor of Wilbur and Orville Wright's contribution to history with their invention of powered flight, is a fitting tribute to their conviction and…

I returned from Iraq last night, and every American can be very proud of the work that our men and women in uniform are doing there for our country. The sacrifice they are making and the danger they face demand that we provide them with…