[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 123 (Monday, July 30, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10309-S10310]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMPLEMENTING RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE 9/11 COMMISSION ACT
Mr. KOHL. Madam President, I wish to discuss several provisions in
the conference bill, H.R. 1, Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11
Commission Act of 2007. As chairman of the Special Committee on Aging,
I wish to thank Senators Lieberman, Collins, Dodd, and Shelby for
working with me and my staff on provisions that will protect seniors in
the event of an emergency or disaster.
It has been nearly 2 years since our Nation reeled from the tragic
and shameful images of seniors abandoned during the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina. Sadly, we now know that 71 percent of the people who
died were older than 60. Last year, the Special Committee on Aging held
a hearing to examine how prepared the Nation is to care for our seniors
in the event of a national emergency. What we learned was
disheartening.
We learned that our Nation is woefully unprepared to meet the unique
needs of our seniors in the event of a terrorist attack, natural
disaster, or other emergency. Cookie-cutter emergency plans are of
little use to seniors, especially those who depend on others for
assistance in their daily lives. We need specific plans, programs, and
information for all seniors facing emergencies.
That is why I teamed up with Senator Coleman to continue to work with
the committees of jurisdiction to ensure that the Departments of
Homeland Security and Transportation place seniors on the forefront of
their emergency planning agenda. These provisions are an important step
toward ensuring that seniors are not overlooked but are protected when
the next national emergency occurs.
I thank Senators Lieberman and Collins again for working with us to
include two important provisions in titles I and IV that will address
emergency preparedness and planning for older individuals.
The first provision we have successfully included amends the Homeland
Security Act of 2002 to ensure that as State, local, and tribal
governments develop their mass-evacuation plans they include specific
procedures to inform the elderly before and during an evacuation. This
will send a strong signal to States and communities that are engaged in
emergency planning that seniors must be a priority and cannot be
forgotten or ignored during mass evacuations. This will also assist
older individuals and their families in appropriately preparing for an
evacuation during an emergency or other disaster.
The second provision we have included amends the Post-Katrina
Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 to ensure that the National
Exercise Program is designed to address the unique needs of older
individuals. The National Exercise Program was originally created to
test and evaluate our Nation's level of preparedness and capability to
prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from national
disasters. Such testing and evaluation will allow emergency management
entities to effectively identify, assess, and improve vulnerabilities
at the State, local, and tribal levels. This provision will keep older
individuals on the forefront of national emergency planning.
I thank Chairman Dodd and Ranking Member Shelby again for working
with us to successfully include and expand upon our original provision
in title XIV, supported by the American Public Health Association,
which would ensure that public transportation workers and other related
employees are trained to meet the evacuation needs of seniors in the
event of a crisis. The Secretary of Homeland Security will establish a
program to conduct security exercises, which will be scaled to meet the
needs of specific transportation systems and must take into account the
needs of seniors who utilize those systems. Additionally, another
provision in this title will ensure that transportation agencies
receiving grant funding in high-risk areas have mandatory security
plans in place that must include appropriate evacuation and
communication measures for the elderly as a component of each agency's
plan. Both provisions are particularly important since so many of our
seniors utilize public transportation for access to their everyday
needs. Furthermore, only public transportation has the capacity to move
millions of people and provide first responders with critical support
in major evacuations of urban areas.
Mr. President, these four provisions will go a long way in ensuring
that our seniors are taken care of if we have another national
emergency or disaster. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita taught us many
painful lessons that should never be forgotten. I will not forget, and
I intend to pursue additional legislation aimed at explicitly
safeguarding the needs of America's seniors in the event of an
emergency. The time to act to protect our seniors is now.
Mr. FEINGOLD. Madam President, I want to add my thoughts to the
debate on the conference report accompanying the Improving America's
Security Act of 2007.
First, I want to preface my remarks by applauding the chairman and
ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee for their work on this important bill. This bill makes
crucial and long overdue improvements in transportation security,
critical infrastructure protection and emergency response capabilities.
There is no higher priority than protecting homeland security and this
bill is a key component in that effort.
I am particularly pleased that the Federal Agency Data Mining
Reporting Act is included in this bill as Section 804. I have been
working on this legislation for a number of years with Senator Sununu,
Senator Leahy, and Senator Akaka. Many law-abiding Americans are
understandably concerned about the specter of secret government
programs analyzing vast quantities of public and private data about
their pursuits, in search of patterns of suspicious activity. Four
years after we first learned about the Defense Department's program
called Total Information Awareness, there is still much Congress does
not know about the Federal Government's work on data mining. This bill
is an important step in allowing Congress to conduct oversight of any
such programs or related research development efforts.
I supported the provision in the Senate bill which mandates the
declassification of the aggregate amount of the intelligence budget. It
is unfortunate that this provision was watered down during the
conference process to permit the President to waive this requirement if
the disclosure of this information would harm national security. The 9/
11 Commission found that ``when even aggregate categorical numbers
remain hidden it is hard to judge priorities and foster
accountability.'' I concur with the Commission, that aggregate budget
figures ``provid[e] little insight into U.S. intelligence sources and
methods.'' Sharing this information with the American people will
provide a greater level of transparency and accountability and in the
end make us more secure.
I am pleased that this bill includes provisions to ensure proper
oversight of homeland security grants. The bill requires regular
auditing of homeland security grant funds to ensure that they funds are
spent appropriately and effectively. I will continue to work with my
colleagues to improve oversight of homeland security funding.
The conference report also includes important nonproliferation
provisions. It would establish a Presidential coordinator for the
prevention of WMD proliferation and terrorism. Currently, there is no
point person in the Federal Government in charge of coordinating
nonproliferation initiatives and efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism.
We face a variety of worldwide terrorist threats. One of the most
serious of those threats is the possibility that terrorists could
smuggle fissile materials into the United States. This provision is an
important contribution to our efforts to secure these materials and
prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
I must note that one provision of this bill troubles me greatly. That
is the so-called John Doe provision concerning immunity for citizens
making tips of possible terrorist threats and government officials
acting on those tips. This provision was not in the bill that was
passed in the Senate, nor was it in the bill that passed the House. It
was apparently inspired by a lawsuit filed
[[Page S10310]]
after six Muslim imams were told to get off a plane they had boarded in
Minneapolis, but the Judiciary Committee never had the opportunity to
study it or perfect it. Regardless of its merit, this provision should
have received more careful consideration by the Senate. I am deeply
concerned that as written this provision appears to endorse racial,
ethnic, and religious discrimination. The best way to prevent terrorism
is through solid law enforcement and intelligence work, not through
scare tactics or racial profiling.
I voted for this bill because it makes key changes to address
security needs. However, our Nation's vulnerabilities demand more and I
will continue to work to ensure that our vital homeland security needs
are met.
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