[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18834-18836]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 DEGRADATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I am here to protest what 
has become a significant degradation of the democratic process in this 
House. We have a situation in which the House leadership has turned the 
legislative process into a propaganda arm. With

[[Page 18835]]

increasing and depressing frequency, we are given resolutions to vote 
on in a form which does not allow for amendments, and these resolutions 
contain a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly.
  What we have is a pattern of taking sentiments to which all Members 
of the House or nearly all Members subscribe, sentiments which are 
quite proper, and then adding into these sentiments are far more 
controversial sentiments, sentiments that many of us disagree with.
  It is an abuse of the process of democracy to bring forward on this 
floor resolutions which combine those things with which Members agree 
with things which are controversial in a form which does not allow 
Members to even begin to separate them.
  There are, for good reasons, parliamentary rules and ways through 
which Members can express partial agreement. We can amend. We can 
divide the question. But when bills are brought here under suspension 
of the rules, as they often are, the legislative process is turned into 
a political propaganda machine. What happens is Members feel coerced 
into voting in very large numbers for particular sentiments which could 
not in many cases get a majority on their own and certainly could not 
get majorities of the size that they get.

                              {time}  2000

  And then having gotten that, people will say, see, everybody agrees 
with that. Most recently this happened on September 9 when we voted on 
the resolution brought out of the Committee on International Relations 
dealing with the terrible events of September 11, 2001; and I will 
insert this in the Record, appropriately marked. It has resolve clauses 
that we all agree with, but it also has a series of ``whereas'' clauses 
which include a number of things which are extremely controversial, in 
my view, untrue, and unworthy of being put through in this coercive 
fashion.
  Paragraphs 4 and 5, which I have noted on my copy of the resolution, 
treat the war in Iraq as part of the global war on terrorism. It has 
been made increasingly clear, most recently by our colleague who is now 
waiting confirmation as head of the CIA, that statements by 
administration officials tying Iraq to the September 11 situation were 
simply not true. Yet this resolution acts as if they were. This 
resolution implicitly reaffirms the increasingly discredited notion, 
believed, I think, by almost nobody except possibly the Vice President 
because he talks about it all the time, that said that there was a 
direct link between September 11 and Iraq.
  And it is wrong to coerce Members to vote for statements that falsely 
assert this claim because otherwise they will be accused of not caring 
about the events of September 11.
  Then on paragraphs 15 through 21, we have inappropriate celebratory 
language. If we read these paragraphs, we have solved the problems of 
immigration and terrorism. We are examining all the cargo. We have 
taken care of everything. We have ``whereas'' clauses here that look 
like part of the President's reelection campaign. He is entitled to a 
reelection campaign. He is not entitled to take things that belong in a 
reelection campaign statement and bundle them into an otherwise 
noncontroversial resolution to coerce people into voting for him.
  This congratulates us, for example, that we have extended our borders 
overseas and to secure and screen cargo before it is placed on ships 
destined for United States ports of entry. It talks about the great 
success of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center. Frankly, if one 
read this resolution and believed it, they would not need the 9/11 
Commission report. These paragraphs basically celebrate the 
accomplishments of what the 9/11 Commission points out need to be done.
  We have congratulations to the Immigration Service, congratulations 
to the FBI, congratulations to the Coast Guard. There are very hard-
working decent people trying hard to accomplish these things, but we 
have not done them yet. These things, if they had been brought forward 
on their own as statements, would have been rejected, I believe.
  It is absolutely wrong to take these inaccurately self-congratulatory 
statements about the administration's performance and our own 
performance here in Congress and get votes for them because otherwise 
people would be accused of not wanting to express our horror of 
September 11 and our thanks to those who worked so hard against it.
  So, Mr. Speaker, because I did not think that the war in Iraq was 
part of the war on terror, I do not think we deserve to claim ``mission 
accomplished'' with regard to the fight against terrorism, I voted 
against this resolution. And I hope we will stop this practice of 
giving a bait-and-switch approach to legislation.

 H. Res. 757, in the House of Representatives, U.S., September 9, 2004.

       Whereas on September 11, 2001, while Americans were 
     attending to their daily routines, terrorists hijacked four 
     civilian aircraft, crashing two of them into the towers of 
     the World Trade Center in New York City, and a third into the 
     Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and a fourth was prevented 
     from also being used as a weapon against America by brave 
     passengers who placed their country above their own lives;
       Whereas three years later the country continues to, and 
     shall forever, mourn the tragic loss of life at the hands of 
     terrorist attackers;
       Whereas by targeting symbols of American strength and 
     success, these attacks clearly were intended to assail the 
     principles, values, and freedoms of the United States and the 
     American people, intimidate the Nation, and weaken the 
     national resolve;


                                   4

       Whereas three years after September 11, 2001, the United 
     States is fighting a Global War on Terrorism to protect 
     America and her friends and allies;


                                   5

       Whereas since the United States was attacked, it has led an 
     international military coalition in the destruction of two 
     terrorist regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq while using 
     diplomacy and sanctions in cooperation with Great Britain and 
     the international community to lead a third terrorist regime 
     in Libya away from its weapons of mass destruction;
       Whereas the United States is reorganizing itself in order 
     to more effectively wage the Global War on Terrorism by 
     transforming the Department of Defense, sharpening the 
     Federal Bureau of Investigation's counter-
     terrorism focus, strengthening the authority of the Director 
     of Central Intelligence to coordinate national intelligence 
     activities, and creating a Department of Homeland Security;
       Whereas of the senior al-Qaida leaders, operational 
     managers, and key facilitators that the United States 
     Government has been tracking, nearly two-thirds of such 
     individuals have been taken into custody or killed;
       Whereas just as significant, with the help of its allies, 
     the United States has disrupted individuals and organizations 
     that facilitate terrorism--movers of money, people, messages, 
     and supplies--who have acted as the glue binding the global 
     al-Qaida network together;
       Whereas Pakistan has taken into custody more than 500 
     members of al-Qaida and the Taliban regime, including Khalid 
     Sheik Mohammed and Ramzi bin al Shibh, conspirators in the 
     September 11, 2001, attacks, and Kahallad Ba'Attash, an 
     individual involved in the planning of the attack on the USS 
     COLE in 2000;
       Whereas Jordan continues its strong counterterrorism 
     efforts, arresting two individuals with links to al-Qaida who 
     admitted responsibility for the October 2002 murder in Amman, 
     Jordan, of Lawrence Foley, a United States Agency for 
     International Development Foreign Service Officer;
       Whereas in June 2002, Morocco took into custody al-Qaida 
     operatives plotting to attack United States Navy ships and 
     ships of other member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty 
     Organization in the Strait of Gibraltar;
       Whereas the United States and its allies in Southeast Asia 
     have made significant advances against the regional terrorist 
     organization Jemaah Islamiyah, which was responsible for the 
     attack in Bali, Indonesia, in October 2003 that killed more 
     than 200 people;
       Whereas Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, 
     and other countries in Southeast Asia have taken into custody 
     leaders and operatives of local al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist 
     organizations and members of al-Qaida traveling through such 
     countries;
       Whereas the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, 
     and other countries have disrupted cells of the al-Qaida 
     terrorist organization and are vigorously pursuing other 
     leads relating to terrorist activity;


                                   15

       Whereas following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the 
     United States Government initiated innovative programs, such 
     as the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program 
     and the Container Security Initiative, to extend our borders 
     overseas and to secure and screen cargo before it is placed 
     on ships destined for United States ports of entry;

[[Page 18836]]




                                   16

       Whereas the Department of Homeland Security implemented the 
     US-VISIT border security screening system in December 2003 at 
     all air and sea ports of entry, requiring that nonimmigrant 
     visa holders entering the United States be fingerprinted and 
     screened through various criminal and terrorist databases 
     before entry into the United States, and this system will be 
     expanded to land ports of entry in accordance with 
     congressional deadlines;


                                   17

       Whereas since September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard has 
     conducted more than 124,000 port security patrols, 13,000 air 
     patrols, boarded more than 92,000 vessels, interdicted over 
     14,000 individuals attempting to enter the United States 
     illegally, and created and maintained more than 90 Maritime 
     Security Zones;


                                   18

       Whereas following attacks of September 11, 2001, the 
     Terrorist Threat Integration Center was established, which 
     now fuses, for the first time in United States history, 
     terrorist-related information, foreign and domestic, 
     available to the United States Government for systematic 
     analysis and dissemination to prevent or disrupt terrorist 
     attacks on the United States;


                                   19

       Whereas following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the 
     Terrorist Screening Center, a multi-agency partnership, was 
     established to integrate the dozens of separate terrorist 
     databases that existed before September 11th into a single 
     terrorist watch list for use by Federal, State, and local law 
     enforcement, intelligence, and border security personnel.


                                   20

       Whereas following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the 
     United States Government has ensured the hardening of cockpit 
     doors on airplanes and greatly expanded the use of armed 
     Federal air marshals to prevent and deter future hijackings 
     that could turn commercial planes into weapons of mass 
     destruction;


                                   21

       Whereas having recognized the need to prevent terrorist 
     organizations from using their resources, the Federal Bureau 
     of Investigation has worked closely with the Department of 
     the Treasury to target 62 terrorist organizations and freeze 
     $125,000,000 in assets of such organizations worldwide used 
     to fund terrorist activities;
       Whereas to date United States Armed Forces and Coalition 
     forces have killed or captured 43 of the 55 most wanted 
     criminals of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, including 
     Saddam Hussein himself;
       Whereas the al-Zarqawi terror network used Baghdad as a 
     base of operations to coordinate the movement of people, 
     money, and supplies; and
       Whereas thousands of families have lost loved ones in the 
     defense of freedom and liberty against the tyranny of terror: 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved: That the House of Representatives--
       (1) extends again its deepest sympathies to the thousands 
     of innocent victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist 
     attacks, their families, friends, and loved ones;
       (2) honors the heroic actions and the sacrifices of United 
     States military and civilian personnel and their families who 
     have sacrificed much, including their lives and health, in 
     defense of their country in the Global War on Terrorism;
       (3) honors the heroic actions of first responders, law 
     enforcement personnel, State and local officials, volunteers, 
     and others who aided the innocent victims and, in so doing, 
     bravely risked their own lives and long-term health;
       (4) expresses thanks and gratitude to the foreign leaders 
     and citizens of all nations who have assisted and continue to 
     stand in solidarity with the United States against terrorism 
     in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist 
     attacks;
       (5) discourages, in the strongest possible terms, any 
     effort to confuse the Global War on Terrorism with a war on 
     any people or any faith;
       (6) reaffirms its commitment to the Global War on Terrorism 
     and to providing the United States Armed Forces with the 
     resources and support to wage it effectively and safely;
       (7) vows that it will continue to take whatever actions 
     necessary to identify, intercept, and disrupt terrorists and 
     their activities; and
       (8) reaffirms that the American people will never forget 
     the sacrifices made on September 11, 2001, and will never bow 
     to terrorist demands.

                          ____________________