[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 56 (Tuesday, April 8, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H2916]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS FAILING IN ITS DUTIES TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES TO 
                 PROVIDE FUNDING FOR HOMELAND SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Burgess). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, the United States Government is still not 
doing its job on homeland security. It is failing in a very, very 
elementary manner. The way it is failing is that it is failing to give 
the tools that our local communities need to prepare an adequate 
homeland security plan and procedures in our towns and in our cities.
  It is very sad to say that where the rubber meets the road on 
homeland security, and that is in our cities and towns, this 
administration and the majority party in this Congress are not giving 
our cities and towns the tools they need to do the job. The sad fact 
is, the Federal Government is not cutting the mustard when it comes to 
helping our cities and towns prepare their police departments for 
terrorism, prepare their fire departments for terrorism, prepare their 
emergency response plans for terrorism. The job is simply not getting 
done.
  Now, we had a little bit of good news today out in the State of 
Washington. The city of Seattle will be receiving about $11 million to 
help with some of their plans. But unfortunately, all of the cities and 
towns around Seattle are not getting help from the Federal Government, 
and they need it.
  I will give an example. The town of Bothell, Washington has and will 
spend over $200,000 this year on their homeland security plans to deal 
with terrorism, from buying gas masks to training for their personnel. 
Over $200,000, Mr. Speaker, and no help from the Federal Government. 
The city of Monroe will spend over $45,000. The city of Monroe is not 
the largest city in the whole country. They are not getting help from 
the Federal Government. Mountlake Terrace, a small town in my district, 
they are spending $2,400 on gas masks, just one little tiny element for 
their expenditures, together with overtime for their officers, no help 
from the Federal Government. The city of Edmonds is spending $145,000 
for homeland security, a significant figure for overtime, for training 
of their personnel, and over $30,000 of training of their fire 
department for hazardous materials training, no help from the Federal 
Government.
  Mr. Speaker, where is the help of the Federal Government for Edmonds 
to deal with terrorism training, for Bothell to deal with gas masks, 
for Mountlake Terrace to deal with overtime, for Edmonds for their 
HAZMAT training? Where is the help for our cities that the Federal 
Government should be giving to these local communities? It is not 
getting done. The reason it is not getting done is that this Chamber 
and the other Chamber are not passing the appropriations that should be 
passed to help these local communities.
  Now, on this floor last week, we in the minority party made an effort 
to increase the appropriation and supplemental budget to get help to 
Edmonds, to Mountlake Terrace, to Bothell so that they can prepare an 
adequate homeland security response. And we wanted to boost, by $2.5 
billion, help for our first responders, for our police and fire 
departments. But unfortunately, the majority party stymied that and 
would not support these increases in our plans to deal with homeland 
security.
  I think it is important to point out the reason for that. The reason 
that this bill did not pass to help these local communities is that the 
majority party thought it was more important to give the folks at Enron 
tax breaks in their multibillion-dollar tax package than it was to give 
the city of Edmonds help for gas masks, the city of Bothell help for 
overtime for their police departments.
  We believe in the Democratic Party it is more important to help these 
local communities deal with the threat of terrorism as a first job 
before giving these tax cuts, a predominant amount of which goes to the 
wealthiest Americans in the country. We believe that, because the city 
of Edmonds has a job to do for the people they represent, and that is 
to do an adequate job to get ready for potential terrorism. The city of 
Bothell has that responsibility. The city of Mountlake Terrace has that 
responsibility. We are going to continue working on this until we get 
this job done, because Americans are entitled to know their local 
communities have responded with as much vigor as we are seeing in Iraq 
from our very, very proud, honest, and effective military personnel 
today serving in Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope that folks will join us in this effort, because 
our local communities need the help of the Federal Government.

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