[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 148 (Friday, November 15, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2078-E2079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HOMELAND SECURITY ACT OF 2002

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                       HON. W.J. ``BILLY'' TAUZIN

                              of louisiana

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 13, 2002

  Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5710, which 
embodies the President's ambitious and historic proposal to create a 
new Department of Homeland Security. At the outset, I want to thank the 
Majority Leader and the Chairman of the Select Committee on Homeland 
Security--the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Armey--for taking the 
President's bold framework and creating a much stronger bill in close 
consultation with the committees of jurisdiction, including the 
committee I chair, the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has and 
will continue to have jurisdiction over many aspects of this new 
department and the difficult challenges it will face.
  I also want to praise Governor Ridge and the White House for their 
flexibility and consideration of our concerns, and I think we all owe 
the Governor and the President a large debt of gratitude for the 
protection that they have given our country since 9/11.
  Ever since the anthrax attacks of last year, the threat of 
bioterrorism has become much more of a reality, and the importance of 
biomedical research activities at the Department of Health and Human 
Services and NIH and the CDC has never been greater. This bill builds 
upon those great research agencies. Rather than destroying their work 
and taking it over and redoing it, the bill makes it clear that NIH and 
CDC will retain primary responsibility over human health-related 
research, and that the new Department itself will not engage in such 
R&D efforts. Rather, it will collaborate and coordinate with these two 
agencies in setting priorities for research on terrorist agents.
  The Committee on Energy and Commerce recommended this approach 
because the terrorism-related research currently being performed at NIH 
and at the CDC is really dual-purpose in nature. It serves the priority 
and needs of both counterterrorism and the traditional public health 
system. So I want to thank the gentleman from Texas and the 
administration for working with us on this important change.
  We also want to make clear that the bill adopts recommendations that 
our Committee made with respect to the public health emergency and 
bioterrorism grant programs run by CDC and HHS for state and local 
governments, leaving them where they are now so that this important 
work of upgrading our public health infrastructure is not interrupted.
  The bill also will improve the efforts by our country's top 
scientists at national laboratories to develop new methods of detecting 
and preventing terrorist attacks, such as improved sensors to detect 
radiological devices and new scanners to screen luggage and cargo, a 
critical need as we move forward. Our current ability to screen for 
radiological and nuclear materials entering our ports is woefully 
inadequate. We are going to do something about it with this bill.
  A key provision in the bill that our Committee recommended will 
establish a central technology clearinghouse that will assist Federal 
agencies, State and local governments and, even more importantly, the 
private sector in evaluating, implementing, and disseminating 
information about key homeland security technologies such as radiation 
and bio-weapon detectors.
  Finally, the provisions in this bill dealing with the protection of 
our nation's critical infrastructures--most of which fall within our 
Committee's jurisdiction and are under the control of the private 
sector--are vitally important to ensure that progress in this area 
continues to be

[[Page E2079]]

made. There will be a strong, cooperative program between the new 
Department and state and local governments and the private sector to 
enhance such protection, without micromanagement of security from 
Washington, D.C., or new regulatory mandates that will serve only to 
foster distrust and delay.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and once 
again thank the President, Governor Ridge, and Majority Leader Armey 
for their tremendous efforts in bringing this matter to a favorable 
resolution for the American people.

                          ____________________