[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18041-18042]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in the 3 years since 19 terrorists hijacked 
4 planes and changed the course of American history, we have learned 
much about our vulnerabilities, our strengths, and the steps we must 
take to protect ourselves.
  Tomorrow, America will remember the images of the Twin Towers 
collapsing, of terrified office workers jumping to their deaths, of 
brave New York City firefighters rushing into those burning buildings 
to save people trapped inside, of soot-covered men and women streaming 
out into the streets dazed and overcome. We will remember the shock of 
learning that a third plane had smashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth 
was possibly headed to the White House or the Capitol.
  We will remember our sense of helplessness, our horror, and our utter 
disbelief as the terrible events occurred that bright morning, a 
morning not too dissimilar to today. In our grief on our day of 
national mourning, let us also recall our unity and those words of Todd 
Beamer to his fellow passengers on flight 93: Let's roll.
  The highest priority of the Senate is to protect the safety and 
security of the American people. But as the 9/11 Commission report 
outlines, before 9/11 we were not attuned to the growing threat of 
Islamic terror. There had been attacks, and the attacks were growing 
bolder, but our attention was ``sporadic and splintered across several 
committees.''
  Mr. President, 9/11 changed everything, and the Senate is committed 
to reforming its oversight functions so that it can, in the words of 
the Commission report, provide ``strong, stable, and capable 
congressional committee structure to give America's national 
intelligence agencies oversight, support, and leadership.''
  Senator McConnell and Senator Reid are leading a leadership-appointed 
task force which is meeting to hammer out a legislative framework. We 
plan to consider that legislation no later than October 1. As has been 
discussed this week, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee is 
leading the reorganization of the executive branch. Under the superb 
leadership of Senator Collins and Senator Lieberman, the committee is 
working diligently to address the Commission's recommendations. They 
started hearings immediately after those 9/11 recommendations were made 
to this body and to the country and continued those hearings through 
August, and now that we are back in session, over the course of this 
week.
  On Wednesday, the Governmental Affairs Committee had another hearing 
to discuss options. Those hearings will continue. Senator Collins and 
Senator Lieberman will likely mark up legislation on the week of 
September 20, and the bill will then be brought to the floor the 
following week.
  These dual efforts--one, the Governmental Affairs Committee dealing 
with the relationships and the definition and the legislation 
surrounding the executive branch, and the other led by Senators 
McConnell and Reid, overseeing the reorganization within this body--
will present recommendations and that legislation to the U.S. Congress 
with the goal of strengthening our national security and safeguarding 
us, the American people, against future acts of terrorism.
  The President and his administration, meanwhile, have already begun 
to address 36 of the remaining 39 recommendations, the last three 
currently

[[Page 18042]]

being under study. Two days ago, we had the opportunity to meet with 
the President, Republican and Democratic leadership from both sides of 
the aisle in this body meeting with leadership and Members from both 
sides of the aisle in the House of Representatives, listening to his 
plans, his vision of intelligence reform.
  On the Senate floor yesterday I spoke a little bit about the 
President's plan to establish a national intelligence director, the 
NID, to oversee these 15 intelligence agencies that we have. This 
afternoon, briefly, I would like to highlight the President's action to 
create a national counterterrorism center. We know that the 
intelligence community generates massive amounts of information. In the 
aftermath of 9/11, this point became tragically clear. There had been 
clues. There had been arrests, analysis, and warnings. But because 
these pieces of information were scattered across agencies and not 
properly shared, they became missed opportunities.
  In the words of the 9/11 report:

       The system of ``need to know'' should be replaced by a 
     system of ``need to share.''

  The national counterterrorism center President Bush has created by 
Executive order will act as a central knowledge bank, a clearinghouse 
where intelligence can be shared across agencies, can be prioritized, 
analyzed, and used in the field to thwart terrorist attacks. In other 
words, the left hand will learn what the right hand is doing.
  I commend the President on his consistent leadership and his 
commitment to reforming our intelligence community. He is already 
transforming the FBI. He has led the most extensive reorganization of 
the Federal Government in 50 years in the creation of the Homeland 
Security Department. He recognized immediately that terrorism was not 
merely a law enforcement issue but a grave threat to America, world 
peace, instability. It required mobilization of all of our resources.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues as we continue to 
advance America's national security and improve our intelligence 
functions. The 
9/11 Commission report was bipartisan and unanimous. Likewise, I am 
gratified by my colleagues' sense of unity and shared vision in making 
America safer sooner rather than later, before ``if'' becomes ``when.''

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