[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 77 (Wednesday, June 12, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5395-S5396]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HOMELAND SECURITY

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, this morning I want to speak to a couple of 
issues that I think are important to this body and certainly to the 
citizens of our country. First and foremost, I want to speak of a 
meeting that occurred at the White House yesterday that I had the good 
fortune to be a part of, a meeting of the President and the joint 
leadership, Democrat and Republican, of the House and Senate. We met 
with President Bush, the Vice President, and Governor Ridge to talk 
about the President's decision to create a new Cabinet-level Department 
of Homeland Security and his decision to send to the Congress a 
proposal that would allow us to work with him in the shaping of 
legislation to ultimately create that agency.
  I saw the current Presiding Officer on television the other night 
speaking to this issue. I was pleased that he, too, like I, agree that 
a time has come in our country that we need to recognize the 
extraordinary global terrorism threat that has been brought to our 
doorstep and to the doorstep of most American citizens, and the need to 
recognize that the mechanisms of our Government to combat this threat 
have in part failed--or certainly the mechanisms are not in tune with 
the current threat in a way that they can effectively connect all of 
the dots to draw the necessary conclusions of the magnitude of the 
threat by those who bring it to our doorstep.
  As a result of that, the President, in a very forward-looking way, 
having assumed the leadership of this great country, has brought to us 
an opportunity to work with him to make a decision that I think will be 
historic for our country, a decision to create a new department that I 
believe, when completed and effectively run, will make all Americans 
safer. It will give our country, through this department, the ability 
to protect our borders, to collate and analyze intelligence and 
information about ongoing threats, to expedite decisions at all 
government levels, and to take immediate action when the conclusion of 
the event or the risk that might occur warrants it.
  The new department eliminates what has become a patchwork of agencies 
and lines of authority that were designed for a threat of an era ago. 
What worked in cold war and post-cold-war environments does not fit, or 
is apparently not fitting the current threat that this Nation 
recognizes.
  This department, in my opinion, is not a step toward big government. 
Big government is when the Federal authorities needlessly take over 
functions better left to State and local governments.
  The Presiding Officer is a former Governor. He understands so well 
the importance of State government and State law enforcement 
authorities. What we want to have happen is an improvement of those 
relationships as they relate to the threat.
  My Governor, Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho, was once a U.S. Senator. As a 
Senator, he had greater clearance than he now has as a Governor. In 
other words, he had a right to know, under the law and by his title, 
more about the security risk in our country than he does as a Governor 
today. That is wrong. Governors in the role they must play as law 
enforcement officers within their States and directors of law 
enforcement communities within their States have to know. I use as an 
example the opportunity to create a seamless relationship between 
Federal intelligence and Federal law enforcement and State law 
enforcement. In my

[[Page S5396]]

opinion, this is not the creation of a bigger government. This is 
called getting smart and getting it right at a time when our country 
demands it.

  This proposal, however, which I think the President offers is the 
direct opposite of what some might call big government. Our Founding 
Fathers said it clearly when they stated within the Constitution the 
responsibility of the Federal Government to provide for the security of 
the citizens of this country. That was the foremost charge of a Federal 
Government's responsibility under the Constitution.
  I think our President has recognized that oh so well ever since 9-11 
and now brings to us an opportunity and a challenge to create this new 
department that, in my opinion, will not bloat government. Personnel 
and offices will remain relatively at current levels. In fact, due to 
consolidation, it is possible we might even see over time a slight 
reduction. The challenge is now ourselves. The challenge is to set 
aside that which is mine or that which is yours--it is called turf here 
on Capitol Hill--and to recognize that this is a time to act and to act 
promptly.
  I was extremely pleased to see the bipartisan character and feeling 
of the meeting at the White House yesterday with Tom Daschle, Trent 
Lott, Dick Gephardt, and Denny Hastert--all of these leaders talking in 
a bipartisan mode about a timeline of importance. I think we all 
recognize that Leader Gephardt said: Why not 9-11-02? Why not on the 
anniversary of this tragic time in America when we began to rethink and 
realign our efforts that we should make available to the American 
people a new department, a new government, a new shaping of government. 
Well, I hope we can do 9-11-02. But if we are to do it, it means we 
have to burn the midnight oil a bit. It clearly means we have to roll 
up our sleeves and go to work. And it also means that the Senate and 
the House operate differently than they are historically at least 
expected to operate. We have done it in the past, and we can do it 
again. And we should do it now.
  I hope Leader Daschle and Leader Lott, in recognizing this, can bring 
the Senate together in a way unprecedented at least in modern times to 
get the job done--to get it done in a quick but thorough fashion, to do 
the necessary and proper reviews that bring about for this country a 
new shaping of government that we hope in the end will make us a safer, 
more secure place, and in that process not infringe upon or in any way 
lessen the rights and the freedoms of the citizens of this great 
country.

                          ____________________