[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 18 (Tuesday, February 14, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H253-H259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           NATIONAL SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Dent). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2005, the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. 
Blackburn) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority 
leader.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to come 
before this body this evening and to talk for a few minutes about some 
things that are very important to us here in the House.
  You know, we stand here many times, many evenings, and we debate the 
role of government here in this body. We certainly have heard it here 
tonight, as our colleagues across the aisle have talked about their 
desire to see things done differently as we look at our budget process.
  Certainly there are those of us like me who think that government is 
overgrown. While there are others in this body that think that 
government cannot do enough, there are those of us who want to 
prioritize and reduce the budget, and there are those who do not want 
to prioritize or reduce the budget. They feel like something to do is 
to keep the status quo and raise taxes and approach our 
responsibilities in that way.
  A couple of points I did want to touch on, as they have talked about 
the budget and talked about the deficit and talked about the concerns 
that we have for that, is we look at the overall economic security of 
this great Nation.
  One of the things that we did when we passed the Deficit Reduction 
Act, which was a plan brought forward by the majority in this House 
that would reduce what the Federal government spends and yield a 
savings for the American people, what happened with that Deficit 
Reduction Act was, yes, we did achieve a reduction in what the Federal 
Government spends. This is the first time in about 20 years that this 
has happened. We had a reduction in our discretionary spending.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is noteworthy that we received not one 
Democrat vote for that bill for reducing spending. While it is easy to 
say, and certainly makes for great discussion and conversation, that 
the deficit is too big, and that we are spending too much, the proof is 
in the pudding.
  The proof is, when it comes time to vote, are you going to vote to 
raise taxes and spend more and keep the status quo, or are you going to 
vote to make some reductions, to get in there and prioritize that 
budget and decide what is going to be the best way to allocate the 
resources of the Federal Government, because we have to bear in mind it 
is not our money, it is not this government's money. It is the 
taxpayers' money.
  The taxpayers are overtaxed. They are paying too much. They want 
Uncle Sam to get his fingers out of their pocket, off their paycheck, 
and leave that paycheck to them.
  I will remind my colleagues across the aisle also, they talk about we 
have to raise taxes to pay for this. Well, 2004, 2005, the U.S. 
Treasury received $274 billion more than they had estimated in 
revenues.
  Mr. Speaker, there is a reason for that, and it is because tax 
reductions work. We know that they work. You lower those rates, and the 
economy, this great, wonderful engine of the U.S. economy, works. It 
works. We certainly have seen that happen. The reductions that were 
passed in 2003 have certainly paid off.
  There is another point I would like to address that did come up. A 
couple of the colleagues said, we need to have some honesty as we look 
at this budget process. I am not going to disagree with that. I 
certainly think as we get ready for Presidents' Day and thinking about 
President Lincoln and the moniker Honest Abe that he carried with him, 
we certainly need to remember that and have honesty. But part of that 
honesty is looking at this and reminding the American people one of the 
reasons we are faced with the budget we have is because of this huge, 
enormous bureaucracy, huge bureaucracy that grew out of 40 years of 
Democrat control of this body, a bureaucracy that basically is a 
monument to them.
  It is so difficult and people have such a tough time working through 
the bureaucracy, whether it is paying your income tax, figuring out 
that process, figuring out that Tax Code; whether it is the local 
university, trying to get over here and get the bureaucracy to help 
them with some program that is needed for that university; whether it 
is our local community and county governments trying to figure out how 
to work with different agencies and comply with different regulations.
  It is a cumbersome, overgrown, bloated bureaucracy; and certainly as 
we address the issues of oversight through the ratings tools, through 
the President's management initiative, through the CFO act, those are 
all accountability measures that have come into play since Republican 
control of this body took place in 1994.
  So there is plenty that we can discuss and we will look forward to 
discussing over the next month as we look at the budget, look at the 
process, look at the need to put those parameters in place that will 
help us get the budget under control and still address the areas of 
responsibility that we have.
  One of those areas of responsibility that I think we all can agree on 
and certainly should be agreeing on is that of national security. There 
is truly a reason that our founders included the words ``provide for 
the common defense'' in the preamble to the Constitution. They knew 
that national security was an imperative in order for this Nation to be 
able to survive. They knew

[[Page H254]]

that in order for children to dream big dreams, in order for small 
businesspeople to be able to go out and take that idea that they have 
and grow it into something that is wonderful, that creates jobs for 
their community, that yields back and gives back to that community, 
that security was an imperative. It is an imperative.
  Tonight, several of my colleagues and I are going to take a few 
moments and talk about guarding this Nation and talk about the issue of 
national security, because we as a party, we as a majority, are 
focused, first and foremost, on that issue. Mr. Speaker, I cannot think 
of a single better time to do this than on Valentine's Day, because 
there is nothing more important or caring that we can do for our 
children, our grandchildren, our neighbors and those we love than to 
fight to be certain that every child has the opportunity to grow up in 
a safe, a free and a secure world. It is one of those foundational 
building blocks. And we Americans are free today because of the 
sacrifices that our parents and our grandparents chose to make for 
them, for us, and on our behalf. Until this world is a far different 
place, it is very clear that we must continue our support for a strong 
military and defense presence. That is the only way that we are going 
to be able to be certain that our kids inherit the America that we know 
today.
  Mr. Speaker, we are going to look at some issues, as I said, of 
national security. We are going to look at the border security issue; 
we are going to look at the war on terror and how important it is for 
us to win in this war on terror and how important it is for us to 
realize that it is going to be a long war, that it is about freedom, 
and it exists not only in faraway lands like Iraq and Afghanistan but 
it is something that we have to address on our border, our Nation's 
border, as we look at the issue of border security.
  The first Member who is joining me tonight, Mr. Keller from Florida, 
has just returned from spending several days down on our southern 
border working with some of the border guards and the security agents 
that are there. Mr. Keller is going to talk with us about some of the 
activity that is taking place on our Nation's southern border.

                              {time}  2115

  Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, if you would have told me when I was in 
college that one day my idea of a romantic Valentine's Day evening 
would be standing around giving a speech on border security, I would 
have probably drank a cup of hemlock back then. But here we are, and I 
am happy to drink this cup of water beside me.
  Mr. Speaker, I have just returned from the Mexican border, and I am 
here to report my findings.
  We were 5,000 feet up in the mountains along the border California 
shares with Mexico at 2:00 A.M., freezing in 30-degree weather, with 
the wind howling in our faces. Eight shivering young men, illegal 
aliens in their late teens and early 20s, sat on the cold ground in 
handcuffs, grateful to be caught. One of them pleaded with a border 
patrol agent to find his girlfriend, Maria, who was still stuck out on 
one of the cliffs.
  Illegal aliens like the ones I saw in handcuffs continue to enter the 
United States from Mexico at the rate of 8,000 per day. Today, we have 
11 million illegal aliens in the United States. Illegal immigration 
presents a huge problem. That is why I decided to spend a week along 
the southern border to see firsthand how bad the problem is and, more 
importantly, what Congress can do to fix it.
  Last year, our Border Patrol agents arrested 1.2 million illegal 
aliens attempting to enter the United States from Mexico. 
Significantly, 155,000 of those arrested were from countries other than 
Mexico. They included illegal immigrants from Iran, Iraq, and 
Afghanistan. This poses a very serious national security problem 
according to CIA director Porter Goss. I spoke with Border Patrol 
agents who had apprehended suspects on the terrorist watchlist.
  One night, while I was riding along with the Border Patrol, two 
illegals from Pakistan were captured. One convicted sexual predator was 
caught trying to cross. So were wanted murder suspects, drug dealers 
and smugglers.
  If the job of a Border Patrol agent sounds dangerous, imagine the 
risk to people who actually live along the border. I sat down in the 
living rooms of four different families who own ranches along the 
border. One couple, Ed and Donna Tisdale, documented on home video 
13,000 illegal aliens crossing their property in 1 year alone. The 
Tisdales had their barbed wire fences cut by illegals running off the 
family's cattle. When their dogs barked to scare off intruders, the 
dogs were poisoned.
  Another rancher told me about numerous break-ins at his home while 
his family slept as illegal aliens searched for food and clothing. One 
morning his daughters had gone out to feed their pet bunnies, only to 
find them skinned and taken for food by illegal aliens trying to escape 
to a nearby highway.
  The economic impact of these illegal crossers who are successful is 
catastrophic. Illegal immigration costs taxpayers $45 billion a year in 
health care, education and incarceration expenses. The cost of the 
estimated 630,000 illegal aliens in my home State of Florida is about 
$2 billion a year, meaning every family in my congressional district 
pays a hidden tax of $315 each year and yet still faces artificially 
depressed wages because of illegal immigration.
  So how do we fix the problem? Well, first, we need to crack down on 
employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. Jobs are the magnet 
attracting illegal aliens across the border, and the U.S. House has 
acted to make it mandatory for employers to check the paperwork of new 
hires or else face stiff penalties. Now it is time for the Senate to 
act.
  Second, we complete construction of a double fence for 700 miles 
along the border near highly populated urban areas. For example, San 
Diego saw a steep reduction in crossings from 500,000 down to 130,000 
when their double fence was completed.
  Third, where mountains and rugged terrain make completion of a double 
fence impossible, we need to have a virtual fence. That is, Congress 
needs to appropriate money for infrared cameras that allow agents to 
see the entire border in day and nighttime.
  Finally, we need more Border Patrol agents. Although Congress has 
already tripled the number of Border Patrol agents since the late 
1980s, more are still needed.
  Mr. Speaker, one million immigrants come to America legally each 
year; and my staff members spend the majority of their time helping 
those who want to come to our country to work hard and play by the 
rules.
  We are protected from dangerous people entering the country at our 
airports. IDs are checked against the terrorist watchlist, and baggage 
is screened. Who is doing checks on the 8,000 people who arrive here 
illegally each day? Who is our last line of defense? It is a Border 
Patrol agent in a green uniform working alone.
  At 2:00 a.m. tonight, after all of us are asleep, he will be once 
again working somewhere near the top of a cold 5,000-foot mountain 
along the California-Mexican border. He will get a radio call telling 
him to approach a group of illegals who have been spotted by an 
infrared scope and are located near the top of that mountain. He will 
track their footprints in the dirt and make his way toward them. As he 
approaches, there is something he does not know. Are these illegal 
aliens a group of harmless teenagers who are scared and freezing, or 
are they heavily armed, dangerous drug traffickers like the ones who 
have killed so many of his colleagues? Either way, he will approach 
them because it is just another day on the job.
  Mr. Speaker, I have a message for that Border Patrol agent. The 
United States Congress knows you are there. We appreciate your service, 
and help is on the way.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman from Florida; and I thank him 
for reminding us of the importance of protecting that border so that we 
do provide for the common defense, we do have a secure Nation, and we 
are alert and watching. As he has mentioned so well, his State of 
Florida, the area that he represents, their estimated cost of dealing 
with illegal entry into this country is $2 billion a year, and that is 
for those that choose to enter this country illegally.
  The gentleman mentioned some of the things that we have done, 
employer

[[Page H255]]

verification, looking at continuing to secure the border, whether you 
are looking at a wall or whether you are looking at technology, but 
putting that surveillance into place.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I am going to yield to the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. Poe), who is on the International Relations Committee and the 
Terrorism Subcommittee. Judge Poe likes to remind us that it is just 
the way it is time and again as he comes to this floor and reminds us 
of the importance of viewing immigration and appropriate and proper 
immigration, abiding by those laws and what an important component that 
is to this Nation's security and how important it is that we abide by 
those immigration laws as we are right now battling in this war on 
terror.
  With that, I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. POE. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
  We have spent much time in these halls discussing many purposes of 
government. Tonight we have heard much about the budget, how to spend 
taxpayer money, how the money should be spent, how it should not be 
spent, discussed projects big and small.
  And many Americans consistently ask themselves the question, what is 
the purpose of government? Why do we have government at all? That is 
certainly a valid question to be asked, especially of our Federal 
Government.
  And you said it well when you mentioned the preamble of our U.S. 
Constitution, that one purpose of government is to provide for the 
common defense. It is the first duty of government to protect us, to 
protect its citizens. Building roads and bridges, having commissions, 
maybe that is important. Well, maybe it is not. But the first duty of 
government is to protect the people that live within our borders, the 
U.S. citizens. Government does a pretty good job of that, especially 
locally, from our local police to our Federal officers, capturing 
outlaws, sending them to jail where they need to be. And we do a pretty 
good job on the international basis. We are fighting the war on terror 
in Iraq and Afghanistan and other parts of the world. Our military is 
the best military that has ever existed. And so the government does a 
fairly good job of that duty of protecting us.
  I spent all my life basically in the criminal justice system. I 
started out as a prosecutor in Houston, and then I spent over 20 years 
on the bench trying criminal cases, just as Judge Carter, who is here 
tonight. He has tried his share of outlaws.
  And the rule of law is something that we all believe in in this 
country, that the law is the standard of conduct. And the law in this 
country is you do not come into the United States of America illegally, 
regardless of your purpose. And we know people are doing that anyway. 
We know, of course, that those narcoterrorists come across the southern 
border, especially the southern border of Texas, bringing in that 
cancer to sell. They make a lot of money doing that.
  We know that people come here illegally, over 5,000 a day across the 
Texas border, illegally coming into the United States for various 
purposes. And we suspect that probably the next terrorist attack that 
occurs in the United States is not going to be because somebody flies 
into Reagan National down the street here, gets off the airplane, looks 
around and decides, I wonder what damage I can do to the American 
population. That is probably not going to happen.
  That next terrorist is going to come across the open porous border, 
South Texas and Mexico, because those borders are open. And every 
country in the world knows that we have an open border, and that is why 
so many people are coming in.
  Give you one example: 2005, in Maverick County, Texas, they had about 
8,000 people illegally come in from Mexico that were captured. They had 
over 20,000 people illegally come in from Mexico from other countries 
other than Mexico, almost four times as many coming into the United 
States from other countries other than Mexico. They were from Korea. 
They were from China. They were from Brazil. They were from countries 
all over the world coming here. Every country knows we do not protect 
our borders to keep people illegally, that wish to come here illegally 
from coming into the country.
  So the duty of government is to protect us, protect the sovereignty 
and the dignity of this country. Everybody wants to live in the United 
States. I do not blame them. I mean, this is the greatest place on 
earth to live. But everybody cannot live here, so we have got to have 
some rules, and those rules have to be followed, and it is the duty of 
our government to enforce the rule of law and make sure that people 
respect the dignity of this country. So we have a lot of concerns about 
that.
  And maybe we should refocus the purpose of government. Maybe we 
should ask the question profoundly, what is the duty of government? And 
then we should expect the answer to be, to protect us, to protect our 
borders, to protect our national security, because that is the duty of 
government. And that is just the way it is.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. The gentleman from Texas is correct. That is the way 
it is. That is the duty of government. And as the gentleman stated so 
well and so eloquently, the business of government is protecting this 
country, as well as that being a duty.
  And one of the things, Mr. Speaker, that we have altered is the way 
that we do business here in America by tightening some of our 
immigration rules. Looking at drivers' licenses, tightening our 
drivers' license requirements to prevent those documents from being 
used in ways that they are not supposed to be used. The Judiciary 
Committee has led on that issue, and Chairman Sensenbrenner has done a 
tremendous amount of work on strengthening our border, taking steps to 
strengthen that.
  Certainly our party as a whole is focused on the national security 
issue as one of the central issues that we must address. That is one of 
the reasons that we as a party fought to get the PATRIOT Act passed. We 
know that on 
9/11 our security net had significant holes in it and it had to be 
fixed and addressed, and we now hope that our colleagues across the 
aisle will join us in supporting the reauthorization of the bill. It 
has been successful, and there are things we need to do to continue 
that focus on this issue.
  A gentleman who is spending a good deal of time working on our 
homeland security issues and looking at the global war on terror and 
America's response there is the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter), or 
Judge Carter as we do like to refer to him. He is on the Homeland 
Security subcommittee, on the Appropriations Committee, and he is going 
to speak with us for just a few moments about what is being done to 
address some of our homeland security issues.
  Mr. CARTER. I thank the gentlewoman from Tennessee and all those who 
gather here today to talk about our national security.
  One of the things that has been bothering me here recently, there was 
a movie that just came out called War of the Worlds, and in that movie 
they were flipping cars around and the space invaders were coming 
around, and you saw the fear and panic on the faces of the people on 
the streets as this made up story of the invasion of our country from 
outer space.
  And I could not help but be struck by the fact that we saw exactly 
that same live and in color fear on 9/11 when those people were 
watching those buildings burn, and all of a sudden the first one came 
crashing down. And we saw films on television of that absolute panic of 
American citizens as they ran in abject fear from the falling of those 
buildings, the attack on our Nation.

                              {time}  2130

  We saw films of people leaping from windows.
  This is what our national security is all about. As Judge Poe said, 
it is about protecting the American citizen. While this is the subject 
of such conversation all over our Nation today, let us do not forget we 
have got to protect ourselves.
  Now, I, like Judge Poe, have been dealing with law enforcement most 
of my adult life. I have tried a substantial number of felony criminal 
cases. One of the things that we always would do that we worked into 
law enforcement is we wanted to have interagency cooperation. We wanted 
to be able to let the DEA and in Texas the Texas Highway Patrol work 
together on a drug

[[Page H256]]

case, work in cooperation, share information. But as we approached a 
view of how we were going to secure this Nation, we discovered that we 
had a lot of agencies in this Federal Government and in the State 
governments that really were not coordinating, working together. Tools 
that we have used for years in criminal justice were not being used for 
securing our Nation. So some brave folks got together here in the 
Congress, and they wrote the PATRIOT Act.
  This PATRIOT Act, because of partisan politics, in my opinion, and 
the fact that this is a world where everybody likes to criticize 
everybody else, we forgot about those people panicking in the streets 
of New York now, and we are starting to tear up a document that makes 
sense. And I think it makes sense to the American people. I think it 
makes sense to say I would sure like to know that every agency that is 
involved with somebody who might want to attack me or my family in this 
country talks to each other, shares information, does not have 
bureaucratic boundaries set up which prevent them from doing this.
  The FBI should share information with the CIA. The CIA should share 
information with the DEA. And all other codes for the various groups 
that are up here, they should get together and share that information. 
The PATRIOT Act set up those procedures to do that. Does anybody have a 
problem with that? I cannot imagine an American citizen having a 
problem with that.
  Do you not want your FBI agents and your prosecutors, the people who 
work on this stuff, to talk? Do you not want them to be able to 
communicate, share what they have got?
  Now, if I think somebody is planning on blowing up a building, just 
like I am really concerned about somebody who might be worried about 
smuggling drugs into this country and I want to have a surveillance on 
that facility where I think this illegal activity or this terrorist 
activity is taking place, I do not see anything wrong with being able 
to have procedures set up, which we have used in fighting the war on 
drugs for years where you go in and take a look and then you back off 
until the perpetrators get there and then you go in and make your raid.
  But you can put a title on that, a sneak and peak warrant, and it 
sounds horrible. It sounds terrible. It sounds like the government is 
sneaking around peaking on private citizens. No. Why should you let 
them know when you are not there that you have been there? Go get them 
when they are there. We are here to stop these people. Why should we 
have to conduct investigations and tip off the people we are 
investigating? Does that make sense? So we have proper legal 
proceedings that have gone on in this country for a decade or so in 
fighting the war on drugs and the war on crime. We are using this in 
the war on terror. That is part of the PATRIOT Act. I do not see why 
the American public would feel like they were intruded upon at all. 
Law-abiding American citizens are not intruded upon at all by this.
  Some people are just shocked that the PATRIOT Act actually looks into 
business records. How do you think you finance people to come over 
here, train to fly a 747 or a 727, and crash into a building without 
some money? If that money is being done for terrorist activities, why 
would you not want the investigating agencies to have the ability to go 
into business records and find out about these things? It certainly 
makes common sense to me, and it is something we have used. In fact, 
many of you may recognize now in your life there was a time you could 
come into this country and deposit money or you could go down to the 
bank and deposit any amount of money you wanted to in the bank. But 
there were people coming from other sources with huge sums of money 
that they were laundering through our banking system for the drug 
business.
  So what did we do? You have to report every $10,000 deposit and every 
$10,000 withdrawal. Nobody got all upset about that in the United 
States. That is dealing with people's business records. But it helped 
us find out where the drug dealers were, and it helped to keep their 
dirty money out of our legitimate system. Now we want to know where the 
terrorists' money is, and I think it is appropriate that we look at 
those records.
  Now, does it make sense to you that you have to hunt for somebody to 
issue a warrant when there is a criminal procedure, a criminal 
procedure that is going on all over the entire United States, that you 
have to go to just one particular jurisdiction to get it when it 
affects all jurisdictions? No, it does not make sense. You should be 
able to seek a warrant anywhere there is jurisdiction. The PATRIOT Act 
allows that to happen on terrorist activities.
  This is a good law enforcement tool. The warrant still has the same 
checks and balances and protections and probable causes that are there 
for anybody. But why do you have to hunt down a judge in Arizona when 
you can find one in California when it all affects the same territory?
  The PATRIOT Act increased penalties on these terrorist crimes. Now, I 
personally am a penalty guy. I believe in penalties. I have sentenced a 
person to 20 years in prison for one rock of crack cocaine because I 
believe punishment works. That is my personal philosophy, and some 
Americans might not agree with it. Our county happens to have the 
lowest crime rate in the United States, but that is my argument. But 
the point is the terrorist penalties have been enhanced by the PATRIOT 
Act. That is good. That helps us use another tool to keep people who 
want to harm our wives, our children, our husbands, our communities, 
give them extra punishment for what they do. Those who harbor those who 
would harm us we also have tools to go after.
  This is the goal of the PATRIOT Act. That is what it was established 
for. It is a good tool. It is a tool that is effectively helping us. 
One of the major reasons that all those who deal with these issues talk 
about them right now, today, is because we have been able to protect 
this Nation since 9/11. Nobody is sitting here telling you that 
everything is perfect; but if you throw away your tools and you put up 
the things that help you solve the problems, in my opinion, for 
political reasons, it concerns me greatly that the real purpose of 
homeland security is lost, and that is protecting our families and our 
way of life.
  The USA PATRIOT Act should be renewed. We should continue this tool 
for the American agencies that deal with terrorism and law breakers and 
making sure that when our kids go to bed at night, they feel a little 
bit safer.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for his 
comments. He is so correct in talking about the importance of the 
PATRIOT Act and being able to protect our families.
  And I appreciate so much that he and the other speakers tonight have 
talked about the implications of what happens here on our homeland and 
the importance of keeping that homeland safe, keeping that homeland 
secure, and have talked about the great work that is done by our first 
responders, by our local law enforcement members, that community that 
works so diligently; the work that is done by our border guards and 
those who are patrolling our borders. Because, yes, indeed, national 
security means that we secure this great Nation. Because this is a war 
on terrorism; it is going to be a long difficult war. And it is the 
reason, Mr. Speaker, that we have taken military action in Afghanistan 
and in Iraq, and it is the reason that we are working to reshape that 
region of this world. And we are making progress. And I know it is 
frustrating sometimes when we feel like we are taking two steps forward 
and one step back. But, indeed, there is a mighty work that is being 
done, a very good, consistent and productive work that is being done by 
the members of this great Nation's military.
  And tonight we are joined by the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. 
Drake). The thing that is so wonderful about Mrs. Drake's district is 
the presence of the military that is there, whether it is our men and 
women of the naval forces that are out there working or those in the 
Air Force who are flying.
  So from land to air to sea, you have it all covered, and we 
appreciate your constituents. And, Mrs. Drake, I join you in wishing 
the families of all of those men and women who are deployed a wonderful 
Valentine's Day. And I join you in standing here tonight to say ``thank 
you'' that they are working to be certain that these children grow up 
in a safe, free, and secure America.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Virginia.

[[Page H257]]

  Mrs. DRAKE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee for yielding to me.
  I am very proud to join her tonight on Valentine's Day to wish all 
our men and women of the service a happy Valentine's Day, but 
especially those and their families who are separated today and not 
celebrating Valentine's Day together because they have put duty and the 
defense of our Nation first.
  We live, as we know, in a completely different time; and we face a 
totally different threat. Our enemies do not wear a uniform. They do 
not represent a nation. They do not own tanks and aircraft. What they 
are is a global terrorist network that represents a violent extremist 
philosophy, one that places no value on life. What they seek to destroy 
is our way of life, the very fabric of our civilization.

  We realize that they have established goals. Their short-term goal is 
to take Iraq. Their mid-term goal is to take the Middle East. And their 
long-term goal is to take the world. They seek and they have vowed to 
use nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare.
  Our brave fighting men and women understand this threat. They have 
volunteered to defend this Nation. Recently, I met a member of our 
military, a young man. He looked at me and he made a very simple 
statement. He said, Think about this war on terror as if it were a 
football game. And the question that I want to ask you is would you 
rather play the game at home or away? Our goal is that we must fight 
this war, or play this game, as an away game.
  I met another young man on my trip to Iraq and had a brief 
conversation with him. He looked at me and he said, Ma'am, I understand 
the threat. I know why I am here, and if I have anything to do with it, 
we will never have another attack on our soil. With that he asked me 
not to worry about him but to pray for him, and in a moment he was 
gone.
  We as Americans do not fully understand this threat. Unless we have 
loved ones who are serving, our lives have not changed. We have not 
been asked to sacrifice for a war cause nor should we change our way of 
life because terrorists would like to do that for us. So it is hard to 
realize that we truly are a Nation at war.
  We question why we bother with a small country that is so far away 
from us when we perceive that they have lived in constant turmoil and 
they have constantly fought with other people. But America is committed 
to winning this war. We have watched liberty and democracy spring in 
the Middle East, and we know in our hearts that all people yearn for 
freedom to raise their children, to be able to live without fear, 
without torture, and without tyranny.
  I would like to share with America that this fall the House Armed 
Services Committee, under the chairmanship of Chairman Hunter, 
conducted a bipartisan comprehensive review to prepare our members on 
the committee for the QDR, that is, the Quadrennial Defense Review. 
This is a review that is done every 4 years by the Department of 
Defense to assess our national security posture.

                              {time}  2145

  Very importantly, this is the very first review that has been done 
post-
9/11. This review is designed to ensure that the Department of Defense 
has a plan to transform itself to meet the threats we face in the 21st 
century.
  The QDR seeks to achieve the following objectives: Defeating the 
terrorist network; defending the homeland; shaping the choices of 
countries who are at a strategic crossroad; and preventing hostile 
states and non-state actors from acquiring or using weapons of mass 
destruction.
  Our goal is to develop a military that is more effective, more able 
to strike quickly. In the coming weeks, members of the House Armed 
Services Committee will be reviewing and assessing how to reshape our 
military to meet these present and emerging threats.
  Our military and the people of Iraq have accomplished great 
successes. In less than 3 years, they toppled Saddam, they created 
their government, and they passed their own constitution. I think that 
is quite a feat. It took us 13 years to develop our Constitution. We 
amended it 27 times. It took us 120 years to give women the right to 
vote. I think we should be very, very proud of their successes.
  So far, we have rehabbed over 2,800 schools; trained over 4,700 
teachers; electricity, water and sewer are working in Iraq; as well as 
setting up independent TV stations, radio stations and newspapers. We 
have captured and killed many of their leaders, not all; we are 
shutting down as much of their money as we can; and our fighting men 
and women have engaged the enemy so that they do not have the time to 
wage war here on our soil and hopefully will continue to prevent an 
attack within our Nation.
  I believe the first function of government is to defend our Nation, 
and I think the greatest gift that we give to our children and our 
grandchildren is freedom. On Valentine's Day I am very happy to thank 
the men and women of our military who give us those gifts.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentlelady from Virginia. I appreciate 
her comments about the QDR and the review that the Armed Services 
Committee, a committee on which she serves, is conducting.
  I would think for those who are watching tonight, if they want to 
follow that process and learn a little bit more, they could go to the 
House.Gov website and then go to the Armed Services Committee and could 
get a bit more information about that process.
  Mrs. DRAKE. That will be ongoing.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentlelady for her comments and for 
mentioning the good work that is taking place over in Afghanistan and 
in Iraq.
  One of the things, Mr. Speaker, that we are learning more and more 
about every day is the fact that, as the military raises up over there, 
at the same time we are raising up and working to raise up the economic 
underpinning of that nation, the governmental underpinning of that 
nation, the educational underpinning of that nation, and working to be 
certain that they are indeed ready to take the reins and ready to 
succeed as they step toward democracy.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to the gentlewoman from North 
Carolina, Ms. Foxx. She does such a wonderful job as she works with her 
constituents and works with us. Education is her forte, and I love 
listening to her stories about how she educates and works with her 
grandchildren and how special and how important they are and the 
lessons that she teaches them and how privileged they are to grow up in 
a safe, free land and their responsibility to be good stewards of that 
citizenship and that opportunity that is presented toward them.
  I yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina for some comments on 
addressing the global war on terror.
  Ms. FOXX. Thank you, Congresswoman Blackburn, for your leadership and 
for providing these opportunities for us to share some of our thoughts.
  Our colleague, Mrs. Drake from Virginia, does such a wonderful job in 
recognizing our military and serving on the Armed Services Committee.
  Today, when I was coming into the Cannon Building, there were two 
gentlemen in uniform standing at the door taking some pictures, and I 
stopped to thank them for their service. I do that every time I see 
anyone in our military. I thank them for their willingness to serve. 
They were so pleasant and so excited. They had come home from Iraq for 
a few days, and they were spending some time here in Washington. One of 
them said that his mother came from Mt. Airy, which is in my district. 
They gave me their cards, and we are going to maintain e-mail 
correspondence.
  You mentioned my grandchildren. I mentioned to them that, without any 
prompting whatsoever, about a year-and-a-half or 2 years ago my now 
6\1/2\-year-old granddaughter and 9-year-old grandson, at night when I 
heard their prayers as they were going to sleep, began praying for our 
military people. It really touched my heart and the heart of their 
parents, because we didn't tell them to do that, they did it completely 
on their own. I hope that all of our military folks know, as I told 
these two gentlemen today, that there are millions of people in this 
country praying for them regularly.
  I want to tie that into what President Bush says all the time. He 
believes, as I believe and I think most people in this country believe, 
that freedom is a gift of God and that we are

[[Page H258]]

blessed in this country with the most freedom of any people and the 
most prosperity of any people and that part of our responsibility is to 
help spread that freedom.
  I also was thinking that February is not only the month for 
Valentine's Day, but it is Abraham Lincoln's birthday, and pretty soon 
we are going to be celebrating George Washington's birthday, and Ronald 
Reagan's birthday was in this month. We have so much to think about in 
this month of what those men meant to helping to live up to the ideals 
of freedom and the values of this country and what they risked in their 
lives, particularly Washington and Lincoln but also President Reagan, 
who risked saying to the world the truth, as President Bush has done.
  I want to bring us back to talking about the fact that we are at war 
and that it is appalling that many of our colleagues cannot seem to 
understand that, as Congresswoman Drake mentioned, and a part of that 
war is being able to gather intelligence so that we can fight it 
effectively. We do want to fight that war on their turf, not on our 
turf, and we want to keep them from attacking us again.
  I have been very distressed in the last few weeks about the way the 
revelation about the National Security Agency's terrorist surveillance 
program, the hysterics that have been created from the other side of 
the aisle. I think that it is time that we talk about the myth that has 
been created about that program.
  The allegations about that program, that it is illegal, are a myth. 
It is a legal program. The reality is that the President's authority to 
authorize this program is firmly based in both his constitutional 
authority as commander-in-chief and in the authorization for the use of 
military force which passed Congress after 9/11.
  The allegations that the NSA program is a domestic eavesdropping 
program used to spy on innocent Americans are a myth. The reality is 
that this program is narrowly focused aimed only at international calls 
and targeted at al Qaeda and related groups. There are safeguards in 
place to protect the civil liberties of Americans. Allegations that the 
NSA activities violate the fourth amendment are a myth. The reality is 
this program is consistent with the Constitution's protections of civil 
liberties, including fourth amendment protections.
  There are people who want you to believe this program is targeting 
average Americans, but nothing could be further from the truth. We need 
this program to help protect us and this country and to help protect 
our men and women who are fighting to keep this country a free country, 
and we need to do everything that we can that is legal, and I am 
convinced that the President is doing what is legal to protect us.
  I think, again, that we want to call attention to the men and women 
who are fighting for us and remember them in our prayers constantly and 
thank them for the sacrifices that they are making to keep this country 
free.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady from North 
Carolina, and thank her for reminding us that this is a global war on 
terrorism.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Conaway) for 
some additional thoughts on the global war on terror.
  Mr. CONAWAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding this 
time. I will be brief, as we have one more speaker.
  Several of our colleagues tonight have talked about the war in Iraq 
and the global war on terror. I just want to add a little meat to that 
bone that says when we have a free Iraq, a democratic Iraq that is at 
peace with its neighbors, is no longer a haven for terrorists, that the 
war on terror will go on.
  I would like to beef up that argument by a brief historical review of 
some of the things that our enemies have done outside of Iraq over the 
last several years.
  In October 2000, the USS Cole was in Aden, Yemen, refueling, when a 
small rubber boat ran up beside it, set off a charge that blew a 40 
foot by 40 foot gash in the side of the USS Cole, killed 17 young 
sailors and injured 39. Without provocation, without warning, these 
terrorists struck.
  In Saudi Arabia, in 2003 and 2004, on May 12, 2003, suicide bombers 
killed 34 people, including 8 Americans, when they blew up a housing 
compound that housed westerners.
  In May of the following year, 22 people were killed when terrorists 
attacked a Saudi oil company in Khobar, taking foreign oil operators 
hostage and leaving 22 dead, including one American.
  June 11, the next month, in Riyadh, terrorists kidnapped and executed 
Paul Johnson, an American in Riyadh. Two other Americans and a BBC 
cameraman were killed by gun attacks.
  Then in December of 2004, in Jeddah, terrorists killed five consulate 
employees at the U.S. consulate there in Saudi Arabia.
  In Madrid, March 11, 2004, just before the elections in Madrid, in an 
attempt to affect the elections, which as history shows us this bombing 
did affect it, 13 rucksacks went off at a train station on four 
commuter trains almost simultaneously at the height of rush hour, 
killing 191 civilians and injuring over 1,800 people. The Moroccan 
Islamic Combatant Group has claimed responsibility for this tragic 
killing; again, an unexpected, unannounced, unprovoked attack on 
civilians.
  Then in July of this year, this past year, July 7, I was actually in 
Kuwait on my way to Iraq when a suicide bomber struck again, this time 
in trains in London. Three different underground trains were blown up, 
killing some 56 people, injuring 700, again in an unprovoked, 
unannounced sneak attack using suicide bombers.
  Finally, on November 9, 2005, in Amman, Jordan, at a wedding ceremony 
in the three hotels there in Amman, again suicide bombers blew up, 
killing 57 people and injuring 115 others in an attempt to create 
terror among those who oppose the violent Islamic Jihadist movement.
  I remind my colleagues and others that we are in a global war on 
terror, no place in this world is safe, and while it is 
counterintuitive to talk about playing an away game, it is clearly in 
our best interests that we continue to fight this war in Iraq and 
around the world so that we don't fight it in the streets of America.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for 
reminding us this is an elusive enemy. It is not an enemy that is 
located in one place or an enemy that is stationary. It is an enemy 
that you will find spread out all across the globe.
  As he mentioned, several of the attacks, whether you are talking 
about the Cole or the Saudi bombings or Khobar Towers or the World 
Trade Center, both of the bombings there, this is a very vicious enemy, 
and the global war on terror is a war that is being fought around the 
globe. The activity is centered in Afghanistan, it is centered in Iraq, 
and it is important that we keep our Nation safe.
  Our final speaker this evening is the gentleman from Georgia, Dr. 
Price, who has certainly put a tremendous amount of attention on what 
it takes to keep this Nation safe and having the tools. Being a 
physician, he knows the tools of the trade are important, and it is 
important that our men and women in uniform, our men and women in our 
intelligence services, our first responders, having the tools they need 
to fight this war and be successful in this war. I yield to the 
gentleman from Georgia.

                              {time}  2200

  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased to stand with so 
many of my colleagues this evening and to talk about an issue that 
really is one of the central planks of our side of the aisle and the 
national campaign that we put forward before the American people. I 
thank you so much for your leadership.
  I was going to talk at length about the National Security Agency and 
the issue that has come before us. I look forward to doing that at some 
point in the future. But I do just want to share a few comments about 
what we have heard tonight.
  When I was young, I was a member of an organization, a group, that 
used to sing a song called Freedom Is Not Free, and the words were 
something like: freedom is not free, freedom is not free, you have got 
to pay a price, you have got to sacrifice for your liberty.
  And I had the privilege of being with the American Legion Post 140 
last night, just last night in my district, and met with these men and 
women. And they went around the room and each of them identified 
themselves and

[[Page H259]]

their branch of service and the conflict and the war in which they 
served.
  And I was so humbled to be in the company of such heroes. It just 
brings to the fore the incredible sacrifices that we as Americans have 
made over the past number of years for our liberty, for our freedom. I 
am so pleased with the leadership in the House, the Members who stood 
up this evening and talked about the difficulty that Americans have 
comprehending this war on terror; and we do, as you well know, because 
we do not think like terrorists.
  We do not understand that mind. We do not understand the mind that 
would murder innocent individuals. We do not understand the mind that 
would chop the heads off of innocent individuals. That is just 
incomprehensible to us. So it does not come easily to us to comprehend 
the fact that we are in a war.
  I was so pleased to hear Congressman Conaway talk about Iraq not 
being the end of this war. There are so many aspects to all of this 
war. So I am pleased with the leadership in the House, and I am pleased 
with the leadership of my colleague, the gentlewoman from Tennessee, 
who is willing to stand up and discuss these issues.
  I also understood that this is not a Republican issue, it is not a 
Democrat issue. It is an American issue; it is an American challenge. 
And so my hope and prayer over the coming year is that all of the 
Members of the House of Representatives and all of the members of the 
Senate will embrace the challenge and the battle truly that we have to 
work together in this war on terror. I yield back to you, and commend 
you for your wonderful leadership in this area.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman from Georgia. I too remember 
singing that song: freedom is not free, you have to sacrifice for your 
liberty. I think that we all have sung that at camps as we were growing 
up. And how true and how meaningful it is as we talk about the men and 
women, whether they are working here domestically as first responders, 
as local law enforcement, as border security guards, protecting this 
homeland that we have, or whether they are fighting in Iraq, 
Afghanistan, around the globe. Whether they are deployed and away from 
their families, we know that they are doing this because they want to 
be certain that future generations grow up in a world that is free, is 
safe, is secure.
  And we thank them for loving all of us enough to make that sacrifice 
and be willing to put their lives on the line. And we wish each of them 
a happy Valentine's Day. We wish their families a happy Valentine's 
Day, and we hope that they all know that we love them too.
  Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

                          ____________________