[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 101 (Tuesday, July 20, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H6104-H6105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             SMART SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, when Ronald Reagan was running for 
President in 1980, he asked voters the question, ``Are you better off 
now than you were 4 years ago?'' Ronald Reagan won the 1980 election, 
becoming the 40th President of the United States.
  Now, in the year 2004, the disarray of world events and the failed 
economic policies of the Bush administration force us to ask of the 
American people once more, ``Are you better off than you were 4 years 
ago?''
  Since he became President in 2001, George W. Bush has enacted the 
infamous policy of preemption. This doctrine asserts that the United 
States has the right to attack any country that the President thinks 
may seek to attack the United States without having any proof to back 
up that assumption.
  Claiming this policy makes America safer against the threat of 
terrorism ignores the truth, that the war in Iraq has struck a hornet's 
nest of hatred in the Arab world against the United States for what it 
sees as a war against Islam.
  In his annual budget request, President Bush has pushed hard for 
billions of dollars to fund an unproven missile defense system and 
research on new, illegal nuclear weapons. He claims these enormous 
weapons systems will make America safer against the threat of 
terrorism, but vast defense spending has squandered money that should 
be spent at home on health care for the millions of uninsured, on 
retirement benefits for our Nation's veterans, and funding for new 
energy sources to stop our dependence on foreign oil.
  The time has come for a new national security strategy, and I have 
introduced H. Con. Res. 392, legislation to create a SMART security 
platform for the 21st century. SMART stands for Sensible, Multilateral, 
American Response to Terrorism.
  In crafting this legislation, my staff and I received brilliant 
support and counsel from Ira Shorr, from Physicians For Social 
Responsibility; from Bridget Moix, from the Friends Committee on 
National Legislation; and Marie Rietmann, from Women's Action for New 
Directions. Without them, this legislation would not have happened.
  SMART security will make the world safer by preventing future acts of 
terrorism. Because terrorism is an international problem, our response 
to terrorism must involve the international community.
  SMART security emphasizes multilateral partnership because we are 
stronger when we work together than when we alienate our friends and 
allies, rejecting their participation, rejecting their help.
  The possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands is 
possibly the biggest threat we face as a Nation, and SMART takes the 
threat of weapons of mass destruction seriously.
  SMART takes the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which has been 
successful in dismantling nuclear weapons and materials in the states 
of the former Soviet Union, and replicates this program in other 
nuclear powers like Iran and North Korea.
  It invests not only in new, effective weapons systems and equipment, 
but in peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts to prevent terrorism, 
exactly the kind of support that is needed in places like Haiti, 
Liberia, Sudan.

[[Page H6105]]

  Mr. Speaker, every country in the world knows that America is the 
strongest nation in the world, particularly when it comes to defense. 
We have billions of dollars in weapons to prove it, but sometimes 
situations call for more than just brute strength.
  Let us not look back in another 4 years and wish we had done things 
differently. It is time America got smart about its national security.
  I urge all my colleagues to cosponsor this vitally important 
resolution, H. Con. Res. 392. Let us be smart about our future. SMART 
security is tough, pragmatic and patriotic, and it will keep America 
safe.

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