William M. ``Mac'' Thornberry: “I hope my colleagues can remember that what we are trying to do is create an integrated Department of Homeland Security…”

“I hope my colleagues can remember that what we are trying to do is create an integrated Department of Homeland Security to make us safer. This is no place for political agendas. This is no place for conspiracy theories. This is no place to be pointing fingers of blame. This is a place to work on a bipartisan basis to make this country safer. That is the only reason to create this Department and that must be its goal. Mr. Speaker, this is an unusual procedure. It seems to be coming rapidly; but in fact, a lot of work has gone into getting this proposal together, and I want to take just a second to acknowledge some of the people who have made this possible, starting with the bipartisan Hart-Rudman Commission, co-chaired by Senators Hart and Rudman, including our former colleagues Speaker Gingrich and Lee Hamilton, who took 3 years to look over the next 25 years at the security threats we face and said number one is homeland security and what we ought to do is create a new Department of Homeland Security. We are doing that.”