[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 145 (Wednesday, September 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5428-S5429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Remembering September 11th

  Mr. BRAUN. Mr. President, I rise to honor those who lost their lives 
tragically 18 years ago and to make sure that we never forget what 
happened then.
  I vividly remember that morning. I was in my own office in Jasper, 
IN. I didn't have a TV. Somebody there brought it up on the internet. 
The second plane flew into the building. I will never forget that image 
because we didn't know what had happened with the first one. We knew 
what had happened with the second.
  Over the summer break, Senator Rick Scott and I took a trip to Israel 
and saw all of that which goes into its preparedness against the evil 
that lurks around the world. I saw it again up close, and it always 
makes me wonder: How can they live like that? How can they be prepared 
when they know there are always individuals and countries out there 
just like in 1941 and just like in 2001? Imagine living in a country in 
which your entire border is surrounded by a fence or a wall in order to 
keep people out--where, in the tough places, there is another barrier 
and where, in the really tough places, there is a dirt berm.
  That drove home again how important it is to be prepared and to 
always be strong when it comes to defending this country and the 
liberty and freedoms we all enjoy every day. I never thought it could 
happen in 1941, and I didn't think it could happen in 2001. It can 
happen again because that is the world we live in.
  When I came here as a U.S. Senator, I always knew the most important 
thing this body should do was foster the defense and the security of 
this country. When you see it has slipped so precariously over the last 
few years--and thank goodness that we have built it back up to a level 
that makes sense--it is because we always need to be prepared. If we 
are going to truly honor all of the lives that were lost in 1941 and 
2001 and will be inevitably lost down the road, we need to be strong; 
we need to be prepared. We always need to be aware of the fact that we 
are blessed just as the State of Israel is blessed--despite all of 
that--with a thriving economy. They live with that danger every day, 
and they find a way to get through it. Let us never let our guard down 
or drop our defenses here. Our freedom and our liberty depend upon it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, as my friend from Indiana and others have 
pointed out today, this is a day that Americans remember as a day of 
unique tragedy. Earlier today, on the Senate floor, we had a moment of 
silence in the middle of a series of votes. The Senate floor was full 
of Members who paused to think about what had happened on that day.
  I think almost every American alive knows where he was that morning. 
Just like this morning, it was beautiful and clear. If you were too 
young to remember where you were that morning--and there is a real 
likelihood that your parents told you where you were--it was a seminal 
moment. It changed how we look at so many things in our country. We 
reflect today where we were and the changes that occurred after that.
  I was working on the other side of the building as a Member of the 
House 18 years ago, and I shared with the Capitol Police today my 
appreciation for what they do every day. On this day every year, I 
remember being one of the last people to leave this building. The 
Capitol Police were working hard to get people out as there was a sense 
that a plane was coming here and was going to either hit the White 
House or the Capitol. I remember walking out the door--I really was 
among the last to leave the building that day--and I remember looking 
into the eyes of a Capitol Police Officer who was still at the door and 
thinking and realizing that I was going to be out. If the building were 
a target, I was quickly going to be somewhere else, and she was still 
going to be here until those who work to protect us every day were sure 
that everybody who could possibly be found and gotten out of the 
building was already gone.
  We clearly understand the world is a dangerous place. We just had a 
foreign policy discussion this week about the country that had served 
as really the haven for al-Qaida and what would happen if we were to 
totally leave that

[[Page S5429]]

country and it were to go back to the Taliban. Would it become a haven 
again? Almost certainly, I think it would.
  We really need to think about a number of things. One is that so many 
people do so much to protect us all the time. We have thousands of 
Americans who are in uniform and in the intelligence community who 
spend their time every day being sure that we are as safe as we can be 
and that our freedoms are secure. They are deployed overseas. They are 
fighting terrorist groups like ISIS or the remnants of al-Qaida. They 
are working here to spot homegrown terrorists. They are doing what they 
can to find what somebody may be talking about or what somebody may be 
bringing across the border that would be of danger.
  Senator Capito and I were just at the border last week. Some of the 
things we talked about were not only the drugs coming over the border 
but the other things coming over the border that are designed to harm 
us--who we are and how we live.
  In St. Louis, MO, and Arnold, MO, we have the second biggest 
installation of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency constantly 
looking at the information that is out there. It looks all over the 
world to see if there is activity in places in which there wouldn't be 
activity. Yet, if there were activity, it would likely be activity that 
would be designed to harm us or others in the world. We need to 
understand that.
  We also need to understand that in the society in which we live, 
there is never perfect security and perfect freedom at the same time. 
We have worked really hard not to allow ourselves to lose the freedoms 
we cherish in return for the security we would like to have.
  We also need to remember those people who responded. As for the first 
responders who ran toward the tragedy on 9/11 as others were able to 
run away from the tragedy--passing each other--many of those first 
responders were numbered among the 3,000 Americans who died on that 
day.
  Just last month, the President signed into law the National Urban 
Search and Rescue Parity Act, which allows Federal employees to be 
active participants on urban search and rescue teams whether the 
disaster is natural or man-made.
  The third thing we need to keep in mind is how important it is to 
honor and care for the victims and heroes among us--those who ran 
toward the tragedy, those they left behind, and the people who still 
suffer today because of what happened to them on that day. As likely as 
not, those people to benefit from the Victim Compensation Fund are the 
people who stayed behind to help others or who rushed forward to help 
others.
  We don't want to become afraid to be the great, diverse society we 
have become; we don't want to become a society in which we allow the 
terrorists to win by taking our freedoms away. Yet this is an important 
time for us to think of those freedoms, of those who defend those 
freedoms, of those who rush to the scenes of danger when we have 
danger, and of those who try to do everything they can to minimize 
that.
  We grieve, we pray, we remember, and we resolve today that we will 
continue to be vigilant against attack and unafraid of defending who we 
are.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.