[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 18221]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   EXPRESSING SENSE OF THE HOUSE ON ANNIVERSARY OF TERRORIST ATTACKS 
          LAUNCHED AGAINST UNITED STATES ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. PETER A. DeFAZIO

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 9, 2004

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss H. Res. 757, 
legislation commemorating the third anniversary of the September 11, 
2001, terrorist attacks against our country.
  I remember September 11, 2001, vividly. The weather in our Nation's 
capital was warm and sunny. I was giving a speech on the House floor. 
Soon after I finished, the Capitol building was evacuated. I did not 
know until I got back to my office that planes had hit the World Trade 
Center buildings in New York and that a third plane that may have been 
headed toward the Capitol building was taken down in a field in 
Pennsylvania. I am profoundly grateful that the passengers aboard 
United Airlines Flight 93 bravely fought back, thinking of the safety 
of others, not of their own well-being. Their actions saved the lives 
of untold numbers of us who were in Washington, D.C. that day.
  The resolution on the floor today appropriately honors those who lost 
their lives due to these heinous attacks. Thousands of husbands, 
fathers, mothers, wives, daughters, brothers, children, grandparents 
and others were lost on that day. We must never forget those 
individuals and their families.
  The resolution also honors the heroic actions and sacrifices of our 
men and women in the U.S. military and their families. I have had the 
privilege of visiting with dozens of our men and women in uniform, both 
here at home and in a war zone. I am continually awed by the 
professionalism, determination, and commitment of our troops.
  I am also pleased that H. Res. 757 acknowledges the service and 
sacrifice of the first responders--emergency personnel, fire fighters, 
police officers, and others--who aided the innocent victims of the 
terrorist attacks. While these individuals humbly say they were merely 
doing their jobs that day, their selfless actions embody some of the 
best qualities of the American people.
  Finally, the resolution congratulates the Congress and the President 
for various steps taken to improve the security of the American people 
in the wake of September 11th.
  While Congress has adopted some piecemeal improvements on the 
security front, al-Qaeda will not wait for us to make gradual 
improvements. Security must be improved today, not after the next 
attack.
  Congress and the Bush administration must stop the finger pointing, 
turf protection, and minor tweaking that have been the primary features 
of the Federal government's response to 9/11. It is time for bolder 
action.
  Aviation security is not what it should be. Security screeners need 
the same upgraded equipment used in congressional office buildings and 
the White House. We need to deploy technology to detect plastic 
explosives carried on board planes. We must screen employees and 
vendors who work on the runways and have access to planes, but who are 
not currently screened at all. All cargo carried on passenger planes 
must be tested for explosives. We need effective countermeasures and 
international agreements to reduce the threat of shoulder-fired 
missiles. The arbitrary cap on the number of security screeners should 
be lifted.
  A fully unified terrorist watch list that is electronically 
accessible to necessary Federal and State officials for real-time 
searches must be put in place now.
  Border security is still notably lacking, three years after 9/11. The 
Federal government should hire 3,000 additional border inspectors and 
border patrol agents to secure our borders with Canada and Mexico. 
Existing technologies, like remote sensors, long-range cameras, and 
unmanned aerial vehicles, should monitor all 7,000 miles of our border 
24 hours a day, seven days a week.
  Astonishingly, on the 3rd anniversary of the attacks, America's 
police, firefighters, and emergency response personnel still lack the 
fundamental ability to communicate with each other by radio. Congress 
must increase funding to help States and local governments purchase 
essential equipment.
  Our Nation has 95,000 miles of coastline and 361 ports. Yet, the 
Federal government will spend only $46 million on port security grants 
this year while spending $10 billion to develop a missile defense 
system that is irrelevant to the threat posed by al-Qaeda. Congress 
should increase funding for radiation detection equipment to screen 
every cargo container, beef up the presence of U.S. inspectors at 
foreign ports to inspect cargo destined for the U.S., and enhance the 
Coast Guard fleet.
  Five times as many Americans travel on trains and transit each day as 
on planes, but less than two percent of the transportation security 
budget goes to non-aviation programs. Congress and the Administration 
should increase funding for passenger rail and transit security. A 
baseline level of security for the transit systems in the 50 largest 
metropolitan areas would cost $2 billion.
  Most of the 20 tons of nuclear material at 130 facilities in 40 
countries has no more security than a night watchman and a chain link 
fence. In 2001, a bipartisan commission recommended tripling funding to 
$3 billion a year for programs to help secure nuclear materials around 
the world from terrorists.
  Finally, I want to say that I am disappointed that H. Res. 757 
contains several whereas clauses implying a link between al-Qaeda and 
Iraq, and Iraq and the September 11th attacks. A variety of experts, 
including the 9/11 Commission and the Senate Intelligence Committee, 
have concluded there was no cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaeda on 
the September 11, 2001, attacks or anything else. It is also 
inappropriate to link Iraq to the global war against al-Qaeda. Iraq did 
not pose an urgent threat to our national security. Iraq did not have 
ties to al-Qaeda. Iraq had not attacked the United States, nor is there 
any evidence Iraq planned to attack us. Iraq did not have weapons of 
mass destruction, nor any delivery system capable of attacking us.
  I supported the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, 
and I continue to support military action against al-Qaeda. But, to use 
a resolution commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 to peddle 
discredited theories about Iraq in order to cover for the failures of 
the Bush administration in Iraq and justify the diversion of resources 
from the war against our real national security threat--al-Qaeda--does 
a disservice to the American people.
  I will vote in favor of H. Res. 757 because I want to honor those I 
mentioned at the outset of my statement--those who lost their lives in 
the attacks, those who tried valiantly to save lives on that day, and 
our men and women in uniform. But, I want to state for the record that 
I disagree with some of the rhetoric in the resolution.

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