[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17419-17420]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            MAKING THE 9/11 COMMISSION'S RECOMMENDATIONS LAW

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I will have a lot more to say about 
nominations in coming days, but I want to focus, if I may, on just one 
matter that I think deserves real attention this month. I have also 
discussed this matter with the majority leader. It has to do with the 
recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission.
  On November 27, 2002, when the President signed the law that created 
the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, he 
said:

       I expect that the Commission's final report will contain 
     important recommendations for steps that can be taken to 
     improve our preparedness for and responses to terrorist 
     attacks in the future.

  Twenty months, over 1,000 interviews, 12 public hearings, millions of 
pages of documents reviewed later, the Commission has put together 
those important recommendations--41 in all. Few of the recommendations 
are new. Many are obvious. Yet none are law. The ideas are there. The 
leadership has been lacking. It is up to us, with the time we have now, 
to provide that leadership.
  Congress is back in session for less than 2 months. The single most 
important thing we can do is make the American agenda the Senate's 
agenda, and we need to put security first. That means putting at the 
top of our legislative agenda the two items that carry with them an 
urgency that is unique to our time and our challenges: the 
recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and the funding necessary to 
increase homeland security.
  The last months have only heightened concerns about the threat of 
terrorism.
  In early August, the Secretary of Homeland Security raised the terror 
alert level from elevated to high, putting Washington, DC, New York, 
and New Jersey on orange alert.
  Also last month, two airliners crashed nearly simultaneously in an 
incident that appears to have been caused by midair explosions.
  Last week the world witnessed the terrible hostage standoff at a 
Russian school and the tragic consequences that resulted.
  In those last two incidents, other nations were targets. And yet we 
know that America is a target. The question for every Member of 
Congress is, have we done enough to improve our Nation's security?
  Three high-level government reports all sanctioned by the Bush 
administration--conclude the answer is: not yet.
  The 9/11 Commission is not the first to look at how we can strengthen 
our intelligence community in order to protect ourselves. In just the 
past 4 years, the Joint House-Senate inquiry into the September 11 
terrorist attacks issued its findings, as did a commission appointed by 
President Bush and led by General Brent Scowcroft.
  Three independent commissions have reviewed these issues, and they 
have all made remarkably similar recommendations.
  They have all said we need a national intelligence director someone 
whose job it is to manage the national intelligence program and oversee 
the agencies that make up the intelligence community. Right now, the 
CIA director also serves as the Director of Central Intelligence. But 
whoever is in that job simply doesn't have the authority to reposition 
our intelligence community to face new threats. We know al-Qaida is 
adapting every day. We are not.
  They have all said we need a national Counterterrorism Center, to 
bring together all sources of information so that we can eliminate the 
barriers that kept one agency's information from another's and kept all 
of that information from getting analyzed.
  We need to do more to understand and disrupt terrorist finances; 
improve the FBI's counterterrorism capabilities; and work with our 
allies to abolish terrorist sanctuaries.
  When you have all of these experts saying all of the same things, it 
would be foolish for us not to listen and dangerous for us not to act.
  The 9/11 Commission has made a series of additional recommendations. 
They include: Securing weapons of mass destruction and keeping them out 
of the hands of terrorists; using the full array of our power--
military, diplomatic, law enforcement, and humanitarian--to combat 
Islamic extremism; finishing the job in Afghanistan with a long-term 
commitment to reconstruction and security, so that land never again 
becomes a haven for terrorists; openly confronting the ongoing Saudi-
based terror financing and official tolerance of extremists, and 
reconfiguring our relationship so that it is not based simply on oil.
  Of course, one of their most significant recommendations was for us 
to do more to protect the homeland. Recent disclosures have 
demonstrated that al-Qaida is an opportunistic organization. They don't 
attack where we are well defended. They attack where we aren't.
  And so it is vitally important that we make America a harder target, 
while also preparing for attacks that may take place, so that we can 
contain the damage and save lives.
  The way we do that is through the Homeland Security appropriations 
bill.
  This bill includes the funding necessary to improve border security 
and customs inspections, to hire 570 new border agents, to make our 
ports safer by inspecting more shipping containers, and to make 
America's transportation systems safer.
  It also includes funding to protect America against bioterrorism, 
cyberterrorism and to ensure our first responders have the tools and 
training they need in case they are called upon to respond to an 
attack.
  Right now, we face a test of seriousness.
  The September 11 Commission has made 41 recommendations. One of them 
can be addressed by completing work on the Homeland Security 
appropriations bill. But we need to act on all of them. As Lee Hamilton 
has said:

       We believe that the reforms are a package and that if some 
     are broken off, then the result is that you diminish the 
     impact of our recommendations . . . You end up with something 
     of less value.

  We need to put security first. I don't think the Senate should be 
allowed to leave town until we have acted on all 41 of these 
recommendations.
  Certainly, there will be some disagreement on some. I know that 
others have suggested different approaches and different reforms 
entirely.
  All of these things deserve debate and discussion. But debate and 
discussion are meaningless if the 9/11 Commission's recommendations 
don't also receive action.
  Time is of the essence.
  Every day the Congress spends not doing the 9/11 recommendations is a 
day we ignore the threat and neglect our most solemn duty as leaders.
  As Governor Kean has said:

       We all think that if we do not act quickly, we increase the 
     risk to the American people. We all agree that the status quo 
     is unacceptable Every day that passes is a day of increased 
     risk if we do not make changes.

  In the words of the families of the victims of September 11:

       Nearly three years have passed since our nation's homeland 
     security was cataclysmically breached. Far too little has 
     been done to better secure our homeland. We therefore request 
     that Congress and our President act with the greatest 
     urgency.

  We need to listen to the experts.
  We need to listen to the voices of those who have lost loved ones and 
are working to see that the horror that was visited on their families 
is not visited on others.
  We need to listen to the American people who are concerned about the 
safety of their families and communities. And then we need to do what 
the American people expect of us.
  Senators McCain and Lieberman have put together comprehensive 
legislation that covers each of the 9/11 Commission's 41 
recommendations.
  They will be introducing that legislation this afternoon.
  We all understand that we have limited time in this session and a 
great deal of unfinished work. This should be our first order of 
business.
  I yield the floor.

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