[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 54 (Thursday, April 3, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H2708]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ADDRESSING HOMELAND SECURITY

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the Republican leadership today is bringing 
up a spending bill primarily to pay for the war, and I certainly 
understand it and will support it; but they have precluded the 
Democrats from adding and actually addressing in a better way the issue 
of homeland security. We know that after 9-11 we have to do a lot more 
to protect problems at home, whether it be water utilities or railroad 
opportunities or our ports and cargo coming into ports. And what the 
Democrats have been saying over and over again is that this bill that 
comes up today, and basically the Republican leadership in general are 
not doing enough to look at the problem of homeland security.
  We were told that we could not bring up an amendment that would have 
added money to pay for these various functions here at home. They 
should have allowed us here to do this. It is not fair to not let the 
Democrats who are a minority, but not a minority by much, to have the 
opportunity to debate and bring up a bill that would put more money to 
address these problems whether it is tunnels, whether it is your local 
water supply, whether it is helping with grants for local firefighters 
or police so that they can better respond and understand what to do in 
case of a biological or chemical attack. This is what my constituents 
are telling me that they are very concerned about. Of course they are 
concerned about the war, and we have to finance the war operations 
against Iraq. But we also have to be concerned about what happens here. 
I saw what happened in the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade 
Center. We are not prepared. Let the Democrats bring up that amendment 
and address the problem of homeland security more effectively.

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