[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 23472-23473]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                9/11 RECOMMENDATIONS IMPLEMENTATION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. NITA M. LOWEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 7, 2004

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 10) to 
     provide for reform of the intelligence community, terrorism 
     prevention and prosecution, border security, and 
     international cooperation and coordination, and for other 
     purposes:

  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, 3 months ago, the bipartisan September 11 
Commission provided Congress with 41 recommendations to help keep our 
Nation secure and our people safe in the face of rising dangers and 
threats throughout the world.
  These recommendations were targeted at eliminating terrorist 
organizations, at preventing the continued growth of fundamentalist 
Islamic terrorism, and at protecting against and preparing for future 
attacks.
  In my judgment, the 9/11 Commission report should have made our job 
easy. But instead, we find ourselves faced with a bill that dangerously 
ignores some of the Commission's most important recommendations, and 
adds hundreds of pages of extraneous and controversial provisions that 
may do little or nothing to better secure our nation.
  Let me be clear. I do support the bill's provisions that identify the 
target terrorist sanctuaries; that focus U.S. efforts on some of the 
most critical parts of the world in the war on terrorism, such as 
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia; and that reform the homeland security grant 
process to ensure that higher threat cities receive more funds.
  I'd like to emphasize that last point.
  As I travel through my District and New York State, what I hear most 
from police officers and firefighters is that we need to change the 
funding formula to ensure that areas facing the highest threats--like 
New York--will get the increased funding need to face those threats 
head-on. We don't have another 3 years to get this done--it needs to 
get done now. As long as a State like Wyoming gets seven times the 
amount of funding that New York receives, changing the funding formula 
must be this Congress's priority.

[[Page 23473]]

  I believe this bill makes important changes to the funding formula 
and I am proud to have helped to craft a number of these provisions and 
to serve on the committee that guided the bill through the legislative 
process.
  But, unfortunately, I have serious objections to many other 
provisions included in this bill that do not have anything to do with 
intelligence reform and other 9/11 Commission recommendations.
  In my judgment, there are more effective and efficient ways of 
protecting our national security without infringing on the rights or 
civil liberties of our Nation's citizens and immigrants.
  While the 9/11 Commission report made several recommendations 
regarding border security and immigration policy, it did not call for 
the undermining of the due process rights of many immigrants by 
significantly expending expedited deportation laws; raising the bar 
substantially for a grant of asylum; or authorizing the government to 
deport foreign nationals to countries that lack a functioning 
government--or worse--condone and permit torture.
  And, while the 9/11 Commission report recommended that we improve FBI 
counterintelligence capabilities, it did not recommend that Congress 
allow the government to secretly investigate an individual suspected of 
terrorism without having to prove that person is connected to a foreign 
power.
  And finally, while the 9/11 Commission Report called for federal 
standards for identification documents, including drivers' licenses, it 
did not recommend that immigrants should be denied a driver's license.
  While I do believe that the Federal Government should have a role in 
helping States to coordinate efforts to strengthen the security of 
drivers' licenses, this bill would unnecessarily take away the power of 
States to set eligibility and documentation criteria for drivers' 
licenses.
  My colleagues, the focus on immigrants and the expansion of federal 
powers of surveillance since September 11 has diverted attention from 
other critical security lapses that should be addressed in this bill, 
such as unfunded State and local homeland security needs, lack of 
adequate security at our nation's airport, intelligence gathering 
failures, and the substantial evidence of incompetence and lack of 
coordination at the Department of Homeland Security.
  However, at the end of the day, I believe that Congress has an 
obligation to act as expeditiously as possible to make this country, 
and indeed the world, a safer place. I don't believe that this should 
be done on the backs of immigrants and law-abiding American citizens, 
and I'm going to work to make sure that doesn't happen.
  But I don't want a single New Yorker, or American, to lose sleep at 
night because Congress failed to accomplish what we all agree is our 
highest priority--protecting America. We are 3 years after the attacks 
of September 11 and 3 months after the Commission issued its 
recommendations. We simply cannot wait any longer to move forward on 
these critical reforms.
  So, my vote today is only a vote to protect the changed funding 
formula that prioritizes high-risk areas like New York, my home state, 
and to move this measure to conference with the Senate, which has 
passed a bill that more closely embodies the 9/11 Commission 
recommendations. And I can assure you that if the conference report 
that comes before our House is not significantly improved from what we 
have today, I will vote against it.
  But for today, we must move this process forward to ultimately try to 
enact legislation that will truly and comprehensively improve our 
national intelligence structure.

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