[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 146 (Tuesday, September 4, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H7796-H7799]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MARITIME BORDER SECURITY REVIEW ACT
Mr. KATKO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 5869) to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a
maritime border threat analysis, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows
H.R. 5869
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Maritime Border Security
Review Act''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of
Representatives;
(B) the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of
the House of Representatives;
(C) the Committee on Homeland Security and Government
Affairs of the Senate; and
(D) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
of the Senate.
(2) Maritime border.--The term ``maritime border'' means--
(A) the transit zone; and
(B) the borders and territorial waters of Puerto Rico and
the United States Virgin Islands.
(3) Transit zone.--The term ``transit zone'' has the
meaning given such term in section 1092(a)(8) of the National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (6 U.S.C.
223(a)(8)).
SEC. 3. MARITIME BORDER THREAT ANALYSIS.
(a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security
shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a
maritime border threat analysis that includes an
identification and description of the following:
(1) Current and potential terrorism and criminal threats
posed by individuals and groups seeking to--
(A) enter the United States through the maritime border; or
(B) exploit border vulnerabilities on the maritime border.
(2) Improvements needed at United States sea ports to--
(A) prevent terrorists and instruments of terror from
entering the United States; and
(B) reduce criminal activity, as measured by the total flow
of illegal goods and illicit drugs, related to the maritime
border.
(3) Improvements needed with respect to the maritime border
to--
(A) prevent terrorists and instruments of terror from
entering the United States; and
(B) reduce criminal activity related to the maritime
border.
(4) Vulnerabilities in law, policy, cooperation between
State, territorial, and local law enforcement, or
international agreements that hinder effective and efficient
border security, counterterrorism, anti-human trafficking
efforts, and the flow of legitimate trade with respect to the
maritime border.
(5) Metrics and performance parameters used by the
Department of Homeland Security to evaluate maritime security
effectiveness, as appropriate.
(b) Analysis Requirements.--In preparing the threat
analysis required under subsection (a), the Secretary of
Homeland Security shall consider and examine the following:
(1) Technology needs and challenges.
(2) Personnel needs and challenges.
(3) The role of State, territorial, and local law
enforcement in general border security activities.
(4) The need for cooperation among Federal, State,
territorial, local, and appropriate international law
enforcement entities relating to border security.
(5) The geographic challenges of the maritime border.
(6) The impact and consequences of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma,
Maria, and Nate on general border security activities with
respect to the maritime border.
(c) Classified Threat Analysis.--To the extent possible,
the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit the threat
analysis required under subsection (a) in unclassified form.
The Secretary may submit a portion of the threat analysis in
classified form if the Secretary determines that such form is
appropriate for such portion.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New
York (Mr. Katko) and the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York.
{time} 1730
General Leave
Mr. KATKO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include any extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New York?
There was no objection.
Mr. KATKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5869, the Maritime
Border Security Review Act, sponsored by the gentlewoman from Puerto
Rico (Miss Gonzalez-Colon), my friend and colleague.
With increasing focus on the threats at the southwest border, we must
be mindful that our adversaries can and will adapt as they seek to gain
entry into our homeland. As illicit pathways are squeezed on the
southwest border, the Nation's maritime border is a likely alternative
route for our adversaries to utilize.
The brave men and women of the United States Coast Guard are
responsible for patrolling our Nation's maritime border, conducting
counter-drug and migrant interdiction operations, as well as search and
rescue missions to ensure the safety and legitimacy of travel and trade
in the maritime environment.
The Coast Guard also interdicts and often rescues migrants who are
attempting to reach the United States not only from the Caribbean and
Latin American region but, as recent cases have indicated, from
countries outside the Western Hemisphere, including China, India,
Pakistan, and Jordan.
Cocaine is one of the most highly trafficked drugs throughout the
maritime border, especially in the transit zone, a 7-million-square-
mile area that includes the sea corridors of the western Atlantic
Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the eastern Pacific
Ocean. I know that firsthand from the time I spent for 2 years in the
mid-nineties prosecuting international drug organizations in San Juan,
Puerto Rico.
The Coast Guard interdicts thousands of pounds of cocaine every year;
though, according to the DHS Office of Inspector General, only about
8.2 percent of the total cocaine flow through the transit zone was
interdicted in fiscal year 2017.
Unfortunately, we currently do not have the resources to turn back or
interdict all the threats in the maritime environment. To make matters
worse, the devastating effects of the 2017 hurricane season diminished
local law enforcement operational capabilities and resources available
to combat maritime-based threats in the U.S. territories, putting
further strain on our Federal law enforcement agents and officers.
Many of the hurricane-affected areas are still not back to pre-
hurricane conditions. Under this environment, by the time a threat
reaches our coastal waters, it is too easy to slip into the country and
often too late, from a law enforcement standpoint, to intercept that
threat.
H.R. 5869 requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a
threat analysis of the greater U.S. maritime border, to include the
territorial waters of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands
as well as the transit zone. The bill requires the examination of
terrorist and criminal threats posed by individuals and groups seeking
to enter the U.S. through the maritime border.
The bill also requires the Secretary to identify vulnerabilities in
law, policy, and cooperation between State, territorial, and local law
enforcement, and it asks the Secretary to review the impact of the
geographic challenges of the maritime border and of Hurricanes Harvey,
Irma, Maria, and Nate on general border security activities related to
the maritime border.
The Maritime Border Security Review Act is a necessary and timely
piece of legislation, and I want to thank the gentlewoman from Puerto
Rico for introducing it.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to join me in supporting H.R. 5869,
and I reserve the balance of my time.
[[Page H7797]]
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of
Representatives,
Washington, DC, September 4, 2018.
Hon. Michael T. McCaul,
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman McCaul: I write concerning H.R. 5869, the
Maritime Border Security Review Act. This legislation
includes matters that I believe fall within the Rule X
jurisdiction of the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure.
In order to expedite floor consideration of H.R. 5869, the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will forgo
action on this bill, including seeking a sequential referral.
However, this is conditional on our mutual understanding that
forgoing consideration of the bill does not prejudice the
Committee with respect to the appointment of conferees or to
any future jurisdictional claim over the subject matters
contained in the bill or similar legislation that fall within
the Committee's Rule X jurisdiction. Finally, should a
conference on the bill be necessary, I ask that you support
my request to have the Committee represented on the
conference committee.
Please place a copy of this letter and your response
acknowledging our jurisdictional interest in the
Congressional Record during House Floor consideration of the
bill. I look forward to working with the Committee on
Homeland Security as the bill moves through the legislative
process.
Sincerely,
Bill Shuster,
Chairman.
____
Committee on Homeland Security,
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC, September 4, 2018.
Hon. Bill Shuster,
Chairman, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,
Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Shuster: Thank you for your letter regarding
H.R. 5869, the ``Maritime Border Security Review Act.'' I
appreciate your support in bringing this legislation before
the House of Representatives, and accordingly, understand
that the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will
not seek a sequential referral on the bill, to the extent it
may have a jurisdictional claim.
The Committee on Homeland Security concurs with the mutual
understanding that by foregoing a sequential referral of this
bill, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure does
not waive any jurisdiction over the subject matter contained
in this bill or similar legislation in the future. In
addition, should a conference on this bill be necessary, I
would support a request by the Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure for conferees on those provisions
determined to be within its jurisdiction.
I will insert copies of this exchange in the Congressional
Record during consideration of this bill on the House floor.
I thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Sincerely,
Michael T. McCaul,
Chairman.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as
I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5869, the Maritime Border
Security Review Act.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5869 would require the Department of Homeland
Security to conduct a threat analysis of the maritime border. The bill
directs the threat analysis to identify terrorist and criminal elements
looking to enter the U.S. through, or exploit vulnerabilities of, our
maritime border. Further, H.R. 5869 directs DHS to identify
improvements to mitigate such threats.
In carrying out this analysis, DHS is directed to look at
vulnerabilities in law and policy that hinder border security and other
criminal efforts along the maritime border. It is important to note
that the bill limits the scope of the legal and policy analysis
provisions to maritime security and, as such, has no relationship to
the Jones Act.
In the current climate where we have a President who repeatedly
threatens to shut down the Federal Government if Congress fails to
provide funding to build a wall along the southwest border that
candidate Trump repeatedly told would be paid for by the Mexican
Government, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that border security
concerns more than the U.S.-Mexico land border.
I commend the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico for reminding us of the
need to secure maritime borders and seaports.
Cargo volume is up. In fiscal year 2017 alone, U.S. Customs and
Border Protection processed $2.39 trillion in imports. This translates
into our ports of entry processing more than 28.5 million in imported
cargo containers.
Seaports are critical infrastructure that drive our economy. As such,
it is critical that DHS stay abreast of the maritime security threat
picture. To that end, I support H.R. 5869, the Maritime Border Security
Review Act, and urge my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. KATKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the distinguished
gentlewoman from Puerto Rico (Miss Gonzalez-Colon).
Miss GONZALEZ-COLON of Puerto Rico. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman
Katko for leading this effort today. I want to thank the chairman of
the committee and Ranking Member Thompson for supporting this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on behalf of my bill, H.R. 5869,
the Maritime Border Security Review Act.
As we move to secure our borders, it is imperative that we confront
the threats posed by criminal and drug trafficking organizations
seeking to enter the Nation through our maritime frontier. Illicit
trafficking through the transit zone, a 7-million-square-mile area,
includes the sea corridors of the western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean
Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the eastern Pacific Ocean. This is the
transit zone.
According to the Coast Guard, the total known flow of undocumented
migrants attempting to enter the U.S. by maritime routes in 2017 was
almost 4,800 individuals. The known cocaine flow throughout the transit
zone reached about 2,700 metric tons in 2017.
This bill also addresses the public safety challenges faced by Puerto
Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the only two U.S. territories located
geographically within the transit zone.
The United States' Caribbean border has long been exploited as both a
destination and a transshipment point for illicit drugs shipped to the
mainland, endangering the lives of Americans in the two territories,
but also in the continental U.S. About two-thirds of the cocaine
transiting the Caribbean in early 2016 was destined for the U.S., most
of it being smuggled through Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized about
66,000 pounds of narcotics in and around Puerto Rico from drug cartels
and smugglers. And let me tell you something: The CBP, or the Customs
and Border Patrol, is outside the mainland. So this is the only CBP
office outside the mainland operating not just in Puerto Rico and the
U.S. Virgin Islands, but our frontier with Venezuela and the whole
Caribbean. The year 2017 was a record high for drug smugglers over the
previous year.
Last year's devastating hurricane season disrupted interdiction
efforts in the United States' maritime border. According to the 2019
Threat Assessment from the Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, the damage inflicted by the storms
severely diminished the operational capabilities of local and Federal
law enforcement on both islands.
The U.S. Coast Guard recently testified before the U.S. Senate that
responding in force to the hurricanes meant fewer resources for drug
interdiction and border protection. They also admitted that, despite
their best efforts, they have struggled to keep up with the volume of
illicit traffic due to a shortage of planes, ships, helicopters, and
resources, further highlighting the needs at our maritime border.
H.R. 5869 would help us better understand these and other challenges
the United States faces along its maritime border by requiring the
Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a detailed threat analysis of
the region. These assessments must include the terrorism and criminal
threats posed by those seeking to enter the U.S. throughout the
maritime border; improvements needed at all U.S. seaports to reduce
criminal activity; and all vulnerabilities in law that prevent
effective border security, similar to those recently released in the
Northern Border Threat Analysis of 2017 that were approved by the House
of Representatives.
The Secretary of Homeland Security must consider technology and
personnel needs, the role of State and local enforcement in border
security activities, the geographic challenges of the region, and the
impact of last year's hurricanes on general border security activities.
[[Page H7798]]
Protecting and ensuring the safety of the American people both on the
mainland and in the territories is very important not just for me, but
for all of us, and should be one of our priorities. An assessment of
the threats posed at our Nation's maritime border will help us achieve
just that. The reason behind this bill is to promote that kind of
analysis.
I want to thank Chairman McCaul, Ranking Member Thompson, and
Congressmen Katko and Perry for their leadership in assisting and
moving forward this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support
H.R. 5869.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I have no speakers on this
bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. KATKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I will be prepared to close in a moment, but I do want
to follow up on a couple of remarks from my colleague from Puerto Rico.
I served there as a Federal organized crime prosecutor in the mid-
1990s in San Juan, and during that time I saw firsthand how much of a
vulnerability the maritime areas have of the United States in general,
but Puerto Rico in particular.
The HIDTA report, which refers to the high intensity drug trafficking
report, talks about severely diminished capabilities for law
enforcement post-hurricane. But that doesn't begin to describe what
really goes on down there.
When I first walked into the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1996 in Puerto
Rico, there were about five or six major fast boats lined up in a
parking lot that had been seized. They were seized because of large
shipments of cocaine coming across the water directly from Colombia,
which is only about 500 nautical miles away. These boats could go
anywhere within Puerto Rico. It doesn't have to come to a port. It can
pull up to shore anywhere and offload whatever contraband they are
trafficking.
Certainly any one of those boats carried millions upon millions of
dollars of poison that were going into drug users in this country, but
they could easily be carrying terrorists. Once they get into Puerto
Rico, you are in the United States. That is what people have to
understand. Once you are in the United States, there is more customs
scrutiny.
So getting it into Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, or the Virgin Islands, or
other territories of the United States, and not knowing what those
vulnerabilities are is a serious gap in our security in this Nation.
We did a similar threat assessment of the northern border, and it was
very illuminating to see how much the northern border is wide open and
how much of a threat it actually is. I would venture to guess that what
we will see from this report when it is issued is much more eye-
opening. It is a vulnerability in the world where people don't want us
to survive as a democracy and, instead, want to impose terroristic
views on our society. It is incumbent we pass this bill to get the full
scope of the extent of the threat.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance
of my time.
Mr. Speaker, in the current climate, it is easy to lose sight of the
fact that border security encompasses land, air, and maritime borders.
Maintaining situational awareness along our maritime borders and in the
transit zone can be a daunting task for the U.S. Coast Guard and
Customs and Border Protection, given the vastness of the maritime
domain. H.R. 5869 will position DHS to better understand what
additional resources are required to protect our maritime ports and
borders.
Given that the measures before us were authored by the gentlewoman
from Puerto Rico, I would be remiss if I didn't take this moment to
acknowledge September 20 will mark a year since Hurricane Maria upended
the lives of millions of Americans living in Puerto Rico.
{time} 1745
The death and destruction caused by this category 4 storm was
compounded by the Trump administration's flat-footed, weak, and slow
response to the suffering.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a piece published by The New
York Times this past weekend entitled ``Don't Give Trump a Pass on
Puerto Rico.''
[From the New York Times, Sept. 1, 2018]
Don't Give Trump a Pass on Puerto Rico
The president thinks the government did a fantastic job last year
handling Hurricane Maria. But the revision of the death toll, to nearly
3,000 from 64, says different
(By Mekela Panditharatne)
The wind and rain began lashing New Orleans in the early
hours of Aug. 29, 2005, while President George W. Bush was on
vacation at his ranch in Texas. As the levees buckled and
water poured into the city, the federal government tarried.
Later, Hurricane Katrina's long pall--the more than 1,800
related deaths, the devastation and the slow federal
response--would come to haunt Mr. Bush's presidency,
cratering his approval rating.
President Trump, who has overseen his own hurricane crisis
after last year's storms in Texas and Puerto Rico, has
largely escaped the presidency-defining censure that dogged
Mr. Bush after Hurricane Katrina. Last week, Puerto Rico's
government increased the island's official death toll,
estimating that 2,975 people died as a result of the
hurricane and its effects--up from the tally of just 64 that
had been the official count until then. Nearly one year after
the storm hit, we now know that Hurricane Maria may be among
the deadliest natural disasters to occur in the United States
in a century.
So why the pass for President Trump?
Mr. Trump's scandal-plagued presidency has benefited from a
deliberate pattern of diversion and the deep executive
dysfunction he has created in the federal government. Under
his tenure, the president has given the impression it is not
the White House's job to coordinate with federal agencies and
that by extension, he does not own his agencies' failures.
This shouldn't stand.
The scope of the administration's negligence is reflected
in a report released by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency in July. FEMA said the agency ``had thousands fewer
workers than it needed'' and that many of those it had
weren't qualified to take on a catastrophe of this scale. The
report also states that the agency took longer than expected
to secure supplies and lost track of much of the aid it
delivered.
An investigation by Politico found that FEMA provided
roughly a third of the meals, half as much water and a small
fraction of tarps to Puerto Rico than it provided to Texas
after Hurricane Harvey in the first nine days after the
storm. Several weeks elapsed before FEMA and the Defense
Department increased their presence on the island, even
though airports and ports had reopened after a few days. The
agencies failed to direct the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham
Lincoln and other ships to Puerto Rico to aid with the
response. Mr. Trump remained largely out of the picture.
No president in recent memory has upended internal
executive branch norms so much. In immigration, military and
other matters, major executive orders have been introduced by
the Trump administration without consulting with his cabinet.
Agency heads have been caught off guard when policies
affecting them are put into motion. The robust interagency
exchange that typically characterizes complex decisions has
atrophied.
All of this makes it easy for Mr. Trump to escape blame for
his agencies' missteps. But this isn't normal. In an unwieldy
bureaucracy, pressure and high-level oversight from the White
House ensure that disaster response does not fall by the
wayside. Where agencies are ill-equipped to handle the on-
the-ground devastation and local authorities cannot fill the
void, presidential leadership assumes greater import.
The Trump administration has additionally taken actions
that may set back Puerto Rico's recovery. The funding request
the White House sent to Congress last November drew
condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats for being
too low. The administration gave Puerto Rico little choice
but to adopt an experimental funding formula to rebuild its
public infrastructure. The formula gives Puerto Rico
flexibility during the rebuilding process but requires the
island to pay for any cost overruns, putting it at risk of
being on the hook for costly receipts down the road. To make
matters worse, last Thursday a federal judge ruled that
Puerto Ricans who have been living in motels and hotels on
the mainland as part of FEMA's temporary housing aid after
Hurricane Maria have to check out on Sept. 14, possibly
rendering many of them homeless.
Going forward, Mr. Trump must ensure that his agencies
focus attention and resources on the resilient, sustainable
rebuilding of the outdated power grid and on restoration of
the water infrastructure and health care system in Puerto
Rico to buttress the island against future disasters. If not,
it's up to us, as fellow Americans, to hold him to task.
The image of Mr. Trump lobbing rolls of paper towels to a
crowd last October in Puerto Rico, arms arched, mimicking a
basketball player, should rank high in the pantheon of
presidential slip-ups. It brings to mind another iconic
image--Mr. Bush surveilling Hurricane Katrina's wreckage in
New Orleans, from Air Force One. Mr. Trump has defied many
dogmas in politics. But the abnormal executive branch
dynamics that he
[[Page H7799]]
has created should not absolve him from responsibility for
the grave humanitarian situation in Puerto Rico.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of
my time.
=========================== NOTE ===========================
September 4, 2018, on page H7799, the following appeared: has
created should not absolve him from responsibility for the grave
humanitarian situation in Puerto Rico. Mr. Speaker, I yield back
the balance of my time. Mr. KATKO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous
consent to reclaim the balance of my time.
The online version has been corrected to read: has created
should not absolve him from responsibility for the grave
humanitarian situation in Puerto Rico. Mr. THOMPSON of
Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. Mr.
KATKO. Mr. Speaker, I ask uanimous consent to reclaim the balance
of my time.
========================= END NOTE =========================
Mr. KATKO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to reclaim the
balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New York?
There was no objection.
Mr. KATKO. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5869,
and I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5869, the
``Maritime Border Security Review Act,'' which directs the Secretary of
the Department of Homeland Security to submit a report on DHS's
maritime border threat analysis based on the work that the agency is
doing to secure the border.
During the markup of this legislation by the Committee on Homeland
Security, a Jackson Lee amendment for this bill was adopted.
This Jackson Lee Amendment requires a review of the metrics and
performance parameters used by the Department of Homeland Security to
evaluate maritime security effectiveness.
This amendment will provide a report on the data that is required by
this bill's report.
The generation, collection, and use of data can create greater
transparency on processes that can better inform our work on the
Committee.
Reporting requirements are an important committee oversight tool that
can provide relevant information on the programs and policies
authorized by Congress.
The more important aspects of data collection require that the
information be relevant, accurate, and consistent.
The private sector is making great strides in the use of data science
and big data to better understand the past and present in order to make
more informed decisions that will impact the future.
Data collected and used for the purposes of this bill can support
data analytics for Maritime Border Security.
Data analytics is the process of examining data sets in order to draw
conclusions about the information they contain, increasingly with the
aid of specialized systems and software.
Data analytics technologies and techniques are widely used in
commercial industries to enable organizations to make more-informed
business decisions and by scientists and researchers to verify or
disprove scientific models, theories and hypotheses.
The Jackson Lee amendment supports data analytics for the maritime
border threat analysis the bill will provide to the committee.
I urge my colleagues to vote for the passage of H.R. 5869.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Katko) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 5869, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________