[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17836]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    9/11 COMMISSION RECOMMENDATIONS

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Madam Speaker, 3 years ago this Saturday, at precisely 
this hour, I found myself standing in the sunlight of a September 
morning in this city near the elm tree on the Capitol grounds. Like so 
many of my colleagues, I experienced September 11 in Washington, D.C., 
and not just the smoke-filled skies and pandemonium that followed those 
moments, but I experienced the lack of deliberation that followed those 
times.
  It is in that spirit that I rise, as I did the day the 9/11 
Commission report was produced, to say that this Congress should 
proceed with deliberation, but as one of my Democrat colleagues said, 
with dispatch, in considering and enacting many, if not all, of the 
recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
  The people of this country believe that they have sent us here, men 
and women in Congress, to consider the changes that are necessary to 
advance the security and liberty of the American people; not to write a 
blank check to independent commissions, but to deliberate, because, God 
forbid, should a day strike America like that day in September again, 
or like the days that have struck the people of Russia or of Spain in 
recent days, there will be a lack of deliberation, and the opportunity 
to thoughtfully consider these proposals will have gone by.

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