[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 130 (Monday, October 11, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1917]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                9/11 RECOMMENDATIONS IMPLEMENTATION ACT

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                               speech of

                          HON. ELTON GALLEGLY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 7, 2004

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 10) to 
     provide for reform of the intelligence community, terrorism 
     prevention and prosecution, border security, and 
     international cooperation and coordination, and for other 
     purposes:

  Mr. GALLEGLY. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. I rise in 
opposition to the amendment proposed by the gentleman from New Jersey.
  The substitute offered by the gentleman from New Jersey lacks or 
waters down many of the important provisions recommended by the 9/11 
Commission and included in H.R. 10 in its current form.
  Border security is essential to national security. The 9/11 
Commission recognized this truth. H.R. 10, in its current form, does 
justice to the 9/11 recommendations by proposing reasonable, meaningful 
immigration reforms to shore up border and travel security. These 
provisions would speed up implementation of our entry and exit tracking 
system and increase the number of border patrol officers. Another 
provision would help ``push out the border'' by expanding the program 
for pre-screening passengers before they can embark to the United 
States to additional countries.
  The 9/11 Commission also stressed the importance of secure identity. 
The 9/11 Commission makes clear that without the regulation of 
identification documents, those who wish to harm us can use false 
identities to evade detection or use false identities to enter secure 
spaces, such as airplanes or nuclear facilities. H.R. 10 would regulate 
which forms of identification can be accepted as proof of identity by 
Federal officials--a reform I have long fought for--so that non-secure 
foreign IDs cannot be utilized by terrorists or violent criminals 
wishing to evade the law or enter secure spaces undetected. 
Importantly, it would also set standards for states to ensure state 
driver's licenses and state identification cards are secure.
  I take particular pride of authorship in the provisions that would 
set immigrant identification standards, expand pre-inspection efforts 
at foreign airports, reform the designation process for foreign 
terrorist organizations, increase penalties for identification fraud 
and for false claims of citizenship, and support creation of a unified 
system for transliteration of names into the roman alphabet. I am 
pleased that these initiatives have become part of this landmark 
legislation.
  Each of the Title III, ``Border Security and Terrorist Travel,'' 
provisions are essential to the national security and should be 
retained in their current form. Therefore, I urge a ``no'' vote on the 
Menendez substitute amendment.

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