[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 10 (Tuesday, January 21, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1241-S1242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      NOMINATION OF GOVERNOR RIDGE

  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, apparently within the next 24 hours we 
will have the opportunity to vote on the President's nominee to head 
our new Department of Homeland Security. The President has made an 
excellent choice. It is hard for me to imagine a better choice to 
undertake this responsibility than Governor Ridge.
  Twenty years ago this month, Governor Ridge and I stood with about 80 
other freshmen Congressmen and women at the other end of this building 
and raised our right hand and took an oath of office to defend our 
Constitution and country. He and I then served together in the House 
for the next 10 years and actually helped to lead one of the Banking 
Committee subcommittees as ranking Democrat and Republican.
  Later we served as Governors in the neighboring States of 
Pennsylvania and Delaware. Even before we came to Washington, we served 
in the Armed Forces of our country where he served with real 
distinction in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam war.
  I will always be especially grateful for a breakfast Governor Ridge 
came to almost 20 years ago. I had just been elected the at large 
Congressman from Delaware and ended the campaign with a little bit of 
debt. We decided to have a fundraising breakfast to help take care of 
the debt, and Senator Biden, then the junior Senator from Delaware, was 
good enough to come and speak at our breakfast. We had a whole host of 
Democratic colleagues from the House, new freshmen who wanted to show 
their support for their new colleague. One Republican stopped by that 
breakfast, and it was the freshman Congressman from Erie, PA.
  I will always be grateful for that appearance and for the friendship 
that has spanned some 20 years. I will be pleased to vote with my 
colleagues and join, I suspect all of them, in making him a unanimous 
choice for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
  While I believe Governor Ridge is more than qualified for the job, 
the task he faces is daunting. Congress has given him a Department that 
at least on paper should be able to prevent and respond to terrorist 
attacks more effectively than Federal Government and State governments 
can today. We have authorized the transfers of literally dozens of 
agencies and tens of thousands of workers. We have outlined a skeleton 
organization that should be able to pull together under one roof 
information on threats and vulnerabilities and to use that information 
to improve security and better prepare our first responders.
  Very little of what we have outlined, though, will be in place on day 
1, and day 1 is tomorrow for all intents and purposes. A number of 
outstanding questions remain. Both in the Committee on Governmental 
Affairs where I serve and on the Senate floor, we have had a healthy 
debate over the details of how the transition to a new Department of 
Homeland Security should work. I know some of my colleagues are 
uncomfortable with what we have. I have a few concerns of my own.
  That being said, I think it is important now that we put aside our 
disagreements and do what we need to do to enable this Department to do 
what it needs to do, to protect American lives.
  Let me take a few minutes to discuss a couple of the issues I hope 
Governor Ridge will address early on during his tenure as Secretary of 
this Department.
  First, let me touch on the subject of rail security. Now that the 
Transportation Security Administration has for the most part achieved 
the goals we set for them, it is time for them and for the Department 
of Homeland Security to focus on other modes that have received less 
attention, especially rail. As I said before, our failure more than a 
year after September 11 to act to improve the security of our rail 
infrastructure is an Achilles' heel in our Nation's effort to secure 
our total transportation system.

  In New York City today, hundreds of thousands of people on their way 
to work pass through tunnels that are badly lit, poorly ventilated, and 
from which escape is very difficult. In fact, there is even a rail 
tunnel that goes under the Supreme Court and congressional offices just 
a couple of hundred yards from where we are gathered this evening. 
Every day thousands of people pass through that tunnel under this 
Capitol on their way to work or to home.
  Passenger safety demands a real investment, but to ask Amtrak to do 
more with respect to security without providing more resources is, in 
my view, an unfunded mandate, not a solution. I thank Governor Ridge 
for understanding the importance of improving rail security, not just 
for passenger rail but for freight rail as well.
  I also thank Governor Ridge for acknowledging at our hearing last 
week that Amtrak is likely to need some additional financial 
assistance, if it is expected to make the security enhancements that 
need to be made.
  Let me also touch on the matter of first responders. States and 
localities are in desperate need of additional new resources to help 
prepare their police, their fire, and emergency personnel for any 
future terrorist attacks. At the same time, most State and local 
governments are suffering through extraordinary fiscal crises that are 
forcing some to raise taxes or cut services. We see that in Delaware, 
in Tennessee, and a host of other States as well.
  I am disappointed that the omnibus appropriations bill on the floor 
this evening and today and again tomorrow probably does not provide 
State and localities with the level of first responder aid that they 
need. In the future, I hope Governor Ridge, soon to be Secretary Ridge, 
and our colleagues in Congress and the President will heed the calls 
from back home for more first responder aid.
  I also hope Governor Ridge works quickly in the coming weeks to set 
up a communications link between the new Department and first 
responders so their needs can be heard and information on what they 
need to do to protect their communities makes its way down to them.
  When the Committee on Governmental Affairs first marked up the 
Homeland Security Act and again when a modified version of the bill 
reached the floor, Senators Collins and Feingold and I offered an 
amendment to create an office of State and local coordination within 
the new Department. That would place a homeland security liaison office 
within each State. Our language, unfortunately, was not included in the 
final bill, but I do hope Governor Ridge will consider setting up 
something like what we recommended once this new Department is in place 
and he and his employees have gotten their sea legs.

[[Page S1242]]

  I want to close with some comments on relations with employees. A 
matter that held up final passage of this legislation when we created 
the new Department last month was really relations with employees, what 
kinds of rights they have under the collective bargaining laws and 
under the merit rules of the civil service rules of our country.
  Recently, ADM James Loy, head of the Transportation Security 
Administration--I am told a very able person--used the authority 
Congress granted him under the airline security legislation we passed 
after September 11 to forbid airport screeners from joining unions. He 
cited his view that the screeners perform sensitive national security 
work as the reason for his decision.
  The admiral's decision may or may not have been the right one. 
Whether it was or not, it has not done much to improve relations 
between the administration and thousands of unionized employees who are 
being transferred to this new Department, who perform work just as 
sensitive as--or in some cases even more sensitive than--that performed 
by the screeners.
  As he works with the Office of Personnel Management to develop a 
human resources management system for this new Department, I urge 
Governor Ridge to work swiftly to repair the strained relationship 
between the administration and the public employees' union. He will 
benefit by doing that, the employees of that Department will benefit, 
and I believe our Nation will, too.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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