[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 899-900]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                PROGRAM

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, tomorrow at 11 a.m., the Senate and House 
will conduct a joint meeting to hear an address by President Aznar of 
Spain. We do ask Senators be in the Senate Chamber at 10:40 a.m. so 
Senators can proceed together to the Hall of the House of 
Representatives for that address.
  At 1 p.m., the Senate will reconvene and resume consideration of S. 
1072, the highways bill. Notwithstanding the recent events, it is still 
my intention to complete action on this bill before the February 
recess. Indeed, with the progress demonstrated today, I believe we can 
indeed accomplish just that.
  I do inform my colleagues that rollcall votes should be anticipated 
during tomorrow's session as we begin the amendment process. I 
encourage Senators to come to the floor to offer and debate amendments. 
In addition to the highway bill amendments, the Senate may also 
consider any available judicial nominations tomorrow. We will alert all 
Members as these votes are scheduled.
  With regard to the events that have occurred over the course of 
today, I do appreciate the patience of all of the Members with the 
restrictions we have had to put in place in terms of access to papers 
and access to their offices. First and foremost, our attention is on 
the staff and on the safety of the Senate family, the extended Senate 
family that begins with our own employees in our offices and then 
extends out through the Senate community and, indeed, beyond the 
immediate community here.
  It has been a difficult day but, as I said earlier, it has given us 
an opportunity to really come together in some remarkable ways. I 
contrast it with a lot that we had to go through several years ago with 
anthrax, which was a very difficult time as well. It was a separate 
agent, but now another agent has been directed against this body. These 
agents are weapons that kill. People ask, is it terrorism? Was it a 
criminal act? To me, both of those demonstrate the intent to harm and 
to hurt. Both were acts of terror. The whole purpose is not just to 
physically harm but also to cause insecurity among people.
  We have learned over the last several years the best way to alleviate 
and tone down that feeling of insecurity when dealing with unknown 
agents--agents that have never been used this way in the history of 
mankind, poisonous toxins or biological agents that for the most part 
we cannot really see you can see the powder, but you cannot touch it, 
and you know the weapons kill when they get into the immediate 
surroundings and are directed at individuals--is the pulling together 
and the sharing of information, with openness, holding press 
conferences, using the Blackberries, the computer and the telephone, 
the personal interaction. Put that together with good information and 
accurate information and things can work out in a smooth way, in a way 
that allays the great fears we all have when dealing with the new 
powerful agents, we are all more comfortable, more secure, we are all a 
little more relaxed.
  This is very serious business. There is nothing more serious. We are 
talking about the health and safety and welfare of individuals and, 
through those individuals, their families. It extends not just on 
Capitol Hill but the feeling of insecurity around the country.
  I keep coming back to the individuals and the families. I do want to 
share with everybody that the individuals in my office are doing fine. 
The people who happened to go through the office where this powder was 
discovered took appropriate procedures on behalf of my staff that went 
into effect immediately in the response by the police and HAZ-MAT 
personnel, with appropriate notification all the way up through late 
last night. I have been very pleased and very proud. They are all doing 
fine. We have had two conference calls today, one bright and early this 
morning. Many did not get home until 2 or 2:30 last night, after 
waiting, of course, for some of the latest results. We had a conference 
call with everyone early this morning before the Senate session and we 
just completed another one. We are providing access to medical 
personnel and physicians and trying to answer as many questions as we 
possibly can with them. I am mighty proud of them and things are 
looking fine.
  It is remarkable also for me to see, having been involved in both of 
these attacks with toxins, chemical acts and bioterror agents, the real 
integration and the working together which people do not see. I share 
with my colleagues our thanks to the various staff members who, 
starting immediately yesterday and working through today, include the 
United States Capitol Hill Police--and they serve on both the Senate 
and the House side--who demonstrated excellent leadership. Their 
experience and the protocols immediately came together, working very 
closely with the response team and the Environmental Protection Agency.
  We all asked questions. Yes, you saw a powder, but how far does it 
aerosolize? How far does it travel over the Capitol grounds? The EPA 
has been instrumental over the last day having prepared for this sort 
of event over the last several years.
  The United States Marine Corps; a lot of people say, What do you 
mean? The United States Marine Corps has been very helpful in the 
process of getting things back up and running.
  The Joint Terrorism Task Force is something we did not even think 
very much about 3 years ago. And that joint terrorism task force is now 
an organized group. They were prepared for this.
  The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been working diligently over 
the last 24 hours with us and the Department of Homeland Security.
  As a physician, of course, I usually start with recognizing the 
medical personnel. In all public events, we will have the Senate 
Capitol attending physician there. He, again, walked us through the 
anthrax threat. He has more experience than anybody in the world today 
in terms of a bioterrorist or chemical terrorist attack in an 
institution or society such as this, having gone through anthrax and 
now the ricin attack, and that is John Eisold who does a tremendous 
job. One of his physicians was with my staff constantly all last night 
from early in the evening until the early hours of the morning, sitting 
with my staff throughout, answering questions and reassuring them and 
appropriately advising them and counseling them.
  The Sergeant at Arms, Bill Pickle, who was not here when we had the 
anthrax attack but who has been here over the course of the year, 
again, is doing a superb job. He and I have talked to each other at 
least every hour except for maybe two hours between 4 and 6 early this 
morning.
  Secretary of the Senate Emily Reynolds' office right now serves as a 
central hotline point and control room in terms of coordination.

[[Page 900]]

  The list could go on and on. I mention all this because Senator 
Daschle and I have worked over the course of today and we are doing our 
very best in terms of the communication, getting accurate information 
out, and we are continuing to do just that over the next several days.
  The Senate has not missed a beat. We have been in session, had a 
productive day. We are in session tomorrow, for another productive day. 
We will have a joint meeting of Congress to hear an address of the 
President of Spain, a wonderful friend to the United States of America, 
President Aznar.
  Following that, as I mentioned earlier, we will come into session at 
1 p.m. and votes will occur.
  I mentioned we are moving one committee over to the House side; other 
committees will be meeting in the Capitol. I do ask that individual 
committee members check with their committee chairman for the location 
of individual hearings. We do have three Senate office buildings which 
are closed: the Hart building, Dirksen, and Russell. All three Senate 
office buildings will be closed throughout tomorrow. It is primarily to 
facilitate in the most time-efficient fashion the collection and 
removal of mail. That is the primary purpose. That is well underway as 
we speak.
  With that, I believe I will bring this session to a close. We will be 
back working hard tomorrow and we will be staying in touch with 
everyone over the course of tonight.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, very briefly, I am the only former Capitol 
policeman here who is a Senator. I have such great respect for the work 
they do. When I was a Capitol policeman, I did not have near the 
responsibilities, not even close to what goes on now in this modern 
police force. We have what I think is, if not the best police force, 
one of the best. They are the ones who are really talking about first 
line responders; they are that.
  The problem occurred with anthrax, or with this ricin; they are the 
first to go there. They do it with courage and determination. We see 
these men and women a lot of times standing at their duty stations and 
some people wonder what they do. Well, every day they are working--for 
lack of a better way to say it, as happened in the Capitol just a few 
years ago, they take bullets for us. They are well trained in any 
aspect of law enforcement, as well trained as anyone in the country.
  I underscore the remarks of the majority leader. We are very proud of 
our Capitol police force.

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