[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 27 (Thursday, February 13, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2379-S2380]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Urgent Needs for Hometown Security

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today to speak, once again, about 
the urgent needs in our local communities for hometown security--
efforts for us to support local police and firefighters and emergency 
medical workers, including those in our local emergency rooms at our 
hospitals. These people are on the front lines of any terrorist attack 
that our citizens may face in the days or weeks or months ahead.
  Many of us have been talking, since just after 9/11, about the 
importance of partnering with local communities, and that it is not 
enough to ask our local sheriffs, firefighters, police officers, and 
others in the communities, to assume this additional set of duties 
relating to national security without having the support and assistance 
of the Federal Government.
  I commend all of my colleagues and the President for coming together 
to make sure our men and women in the armed services have what they 
need at this critical time. We have come forward with substantial 
increases in the Department of Defense, and I am sure we will continue 
to do so.
  But when it comes to the home front, we have not yet done what needs 
to be done. There is a growing sense of urgency and bewilderment in our 
communities here at home about why this has not occurred and why the 
President is not supporting the efforts that we have put forward.
  I have been holding meetings around Michigan--I believe eight 
different meetings now--from Detroit to Macomb County, Oakland County; 
I was in Port Huron, MI, on Monday; on over to Lansing and Kalamazoo, 
and all the way up to Marquette in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan--and 
I hear the same thing over and over: We need help purchasing updated 
radio equipment; we can't talk to one another; the city versus the 
county or county to county. In some cases, in smaller communities, the 
fire department cannot talk to the police department. We need a better 
dispatch system. We need better communications systems. We need, 
frankly, to be doing this on a statewide and national basis. But the 
communities do not have the resources to do it alone.
  We hear about training, not only having a trainer come in--whether it 
is for bioterrorism, whether it is other types of training that is 
needed--but we are hearing from local law enforcement and others that 
when you have a training certification, and you take 10 police officers 
away from their normal duties of patrolling our streets and keeping the 
citizens safe, and they sit in training, no matter how important it is, 
the police chief still has to replace those 10 officers so the citizens 
remain safe while that is happening, while the training is occurring. 
That takes additional dollars.
  There are multiple costs to training that we need to be supporting in 
order to be able to get this done as quickly as possible and as 
thoroughly as possible. And certainly we need additional personnel, 
different kinds of personnel, in our local communities.
  I am sure my colleagues have received many letters. I have received 
many letters in addition to the personal conversations that I have had 
with people across Michigan. Let me share parts of a couple letters 
from mayors in Michigan.
  The mayor from the city of Birmingham wrote to the President and sent 
me a copy:

       Mr. President, I am writing to express my deep concern that 
     funding for first responders promised nearly a year ago has 
     still not been provided to America's cities, towns and 
     villages. As you know, the nation's local municipalities have 
     carried the burden for homeland security during the 15 months 
     since the September 11 attacks, with only the promise of 
     federal support.

  This was written back in December.


[[Page S2380]]


       The absence of federal funding for police, firefighters and 
     emergency response staff has been a disappointment for many 
     city leaders across the country as their concerns were voiced 
     at the recent National League of Cities conference held 
     earlier this year.

  I have a similar letter that has come from the mayor of Cadillac, in 
northern Michigan, again expressing grave concerns and saying:

       At the recent National League of Cities conference in Salt 
     Lake City, city leaders from across the country voiced their 
     deep disappointment regarding the absence of federal funding 
     for police, firefighters and emergency response staff.

  The city of Fenton, in Michigan, the city of East Lansing, in my own 
home county--mayors, county officials, police chiefs, sheriffs--and of 
both parties; this is not Republican and Democrat; this is not urban 
and rural; this is not a question of one part of the country against 
another--everyone, every community is saying this same thing.
  I am deeply concerned not only about past actions but what is 
occurring right now in this current budget bill that we will have in 
front of us tomorrow.
  Let me, first, indicate and remind us that last summer we passed an 
emergency supplemental that included $2.5 billion, passed by the Senate 
with bipartisan support, passed by the House with bipartisan support, 
and sent to the President, an emergency supplemental including $2.5 
billion for local communities. It was on the President's desk. All he 
had to do was sign it. And he would not declare it as an emergency and 
would not sign it and release the funds.
  We have come back again and again. Twice this last month, in January, 
Senator Byrd stood in this Chamber and eloquently spoke about the needs 
of communities and first responders. Again, we could not get the 
support.
  And now in the omnibus budget bill that will be coming before us, 
despite a unanimous Senate appropriations vote back last July on a 
series of items that deal with transportation security, border 
security, community policing, Federal emergency management, firefighter 
grants, equipment and communications, emergency operations, port 
container security--and on and on and on--we now have in front of us a 
bill that, in fact, will cut from that amount supported unanimously by 
the Senate Appropriations Committee $4.4 billion from homeland security 
from what we passed, what the Appropriations Committee passed and 
recommended to us last summer based on the needs presented to them from 
communities.
  We could go down the list. I am deeply concerned when I see the cuts 
in community policing, the firefighter grants, the inoperable 
communications equipment grants, which I am hearing so much concern 
about, emergency operations, et cetera.
  It is time for us to act. It is time for us to hear what our 
communities are saying. I urge my colleagues to join with us in making 
sure we truly keep our communities safe.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.

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