[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 22921]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    U.S. ENGAGED IN A TWO-FRONT WAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, this country is now engaged in a two-front 
war. In Afghanistan itself, the war in many places seems to be going 
well. The President, the Pentagon, our intelligence agencies and other 
agencies are doing their job well. We also have a second war, and that 
is the war on the home front. In my view, not nearly enough is being 
done to provide domestic security at a time when we are under attack 
from terrorism. We have a large number of vulnerabilities.
  Two weeks ago this Congress passed a tax bill which gave $25 billion 
in retroactive tax cuts to the largest corporations in this country, 
repealing all of the taxes those corporations had paid over the past 15 
years, retroactively. As a result, one corporation got $1.4 billion in 
a tax gift.
  The Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the White 
House's budget arm, seemed to think we had plenty of room to afford 
that kind of giveaway. Yet the Office of Management and Budget, the 
fiscal arm of the White House, is trying to block, along with the 
leadership of this House, our ability to even get a vote on an effort 
to add $7 billion to the security on the home front, that I think we 
desperately need.
  We are trying to add additional agents to the FBI, so they can more 
rapidly and effectively ferret out terrorists and protect the national 
interest. We are trying to provide additional resources to our public 
health departments around the country. We are trying to provide a 
number of additional areas of support. We are trying to cover more than 
1 percent of our food supply that comes into this country, because only 
1 percent gets inspected.
  We are trying to do a lot to cover those bases, but I want to talk 
about one area specifically.
  This chart represents a day in the life of the U.S. Customs Service. 
On a typical day, the U.S. Customs Service processes 1.3 million 
passengers, 2,642 aircraft, 50,889 trucks and containers, 355,000 
vehicles, 588 ships, 65,000 entry summaries; and they perform 64 
arrests, 223 other seizures, 107 narcotics seizures, and 9 currency 
seizures. That is part of what these people do for a living every day, 
all in the service of every American.
  We have a serious problem because our Customs Service and our Coast 
Guard do not have enough people in order to secure the borders of the 
United States. Right now, there are 64 points of entry on the Canadian 
border which are not open full time. When they are closed, there are 
two deterrents to illegal entry: One is a little gate with a stop sign, 
as pictured in this picture, which says ``This port is closed. Warning, 
$5,000 fine for entering the United States through a closed port. 
Nearest open port is 70 miles east at portal on Canadian Highway 39.''
  This represents our deterrent, along with this: a traffic cone. I do 
not think it is going to scare many terrorists who want to illegally 
enter the United States.

                              {time}  1545

  Yet we are being prevented from even bringing to the floor a measure 
to try to do something about that. We not only have problems with 
roads; we have problems with ports. My own major port of Duluth-
Superior, for instance, is a port of access in this country.
  Meanwhile, we have many ports closed; we have hour after hour backup 
of trucks at other points of entry that are open 24 hours a day. This 
backup means that many of our American industries are not able to 
produce fully because they cannot get the materials they need. This is 
just one of the many security problems we are trying to deal with; and 
the problem we are facing, I am sorry to say, is that the leadership of 
this House is preventing us from getting votes on three amendments: one 
to ensure that our friends in New York get the relief they were 
promised 2 months ago; the second to make certain that we increase the 
Pentagon budget in areas thought necessary; and, third, to increase our 
homeland security.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the leadership of this House to allow us to vote 
on those three amendments. They do not need to vote for them, just 
allow us to vote on them.
  There was an amendment today offered on New York which purports to 
take care of those problems. With all due respect, in my view, any 
Member of the New York delegation who tries to walk around in public 
using that as a fig leaf would be arrested for indecent exposure 
because that amendment does virtually nothing. It gives no political 
cover; and it should not, because it provides no substantive 
improvement.
  I urge the House to allow us to vote on those three amendments. This 
involves the national security of the United States. We should not be 
operating under a gag rule. We should not be relying on a traffic cone 
as a major deterrent on the Canadian border, and that is what we will 
be doing without the amendment that we want to vote on when we return.

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