[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21275-21276]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        IMPLEMENTING RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE 9/11 COMMISSION ACT

  Mr. KOHL. Madam President, I wish to discuss several provisions in 
the conference bill, H.R. 1, Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 
Commission Act of 2007. As chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, 
I wish to thank Senators Lieberman, Collins, Dodd, and Shelby for 
working with me and my staff on provisions that will protect seniors in 
the event of an emergency or disaster.
  It has been nearly 2 years since our Nation reeled from the tragic 
and shameful images of seniors abandoned during the aftermath of 
Hurricane Katrina. Sadly, we now know that 71 percent of the people who 
died were older than 60. Last year, the Special Committee on Aging held 
a hearing to examine how prepared the Nation is to care for our seniors 
in the event of a national emergency. What we learned was 
disheartening.
  We learned that our Nation is woefully unprepared to meet the unique 
needs of our seniors in the event of a terrorist attack, natural 
disaster, or other emergency. Cookie-cutter emergency plans are of 
little use to seniors, especially those who depend on others for 
assistance in their daily lives. We need specific plans, programs, and 
information for all seniors facing emergencies.
  That is why I teamed up with Senator Coleman to continue to work with 
the committees of jurisdiction to ensure that the Departments of 
Homeland Security and Transportation place seniors on the forefront of 
their emergency planning agenda. These provisions are an important step 
toward ensuring that seniors are not overlooked but are protected when 
the next national emergency occurs.
  I thank Senators Lieberman and Collins again for working with us to 
include two important provisions in titles I and IV that will address 
emergency preparedness and planning for older individuals.
  The first provision we have successfully included amends the Homeland 
Security Act of 2002 to ensure that as State, local, and tribal 
governments develop their mass-evacuation plans they include specific 
procedures to inform the elderly before and during an evacuation. This 
will send a strong signal to States and communities that are engaged in 
emergency planning that seniors must be a priority and cannot be 
forgotten or ignored during mass evacuations. This will also assist 
older individuals and their families in appropriately preparing for an 
evacuation during an emergency or other disaster.
  The second provision we have included amends the Post-Katrina 
Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 to ensure that the National 
Exercise Program is designed to address the unique needs of older 
individuals. The National Exercise Program was originally created to 
test and evaluate our Nation's level of preparedness and capability to 
prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from national 
disasters. Such testing and evaluation will allow emergency management 
entities to effectively identify, assess,

[[Page 21276]]

and improve vulnerabilities at the State, local, and tribal levels. 
This provision will keep older individuals on the forefront of national 
emergency planning.
  I thank Chairman Dodd and Ranking Member Shelby again for working 
with us to successfully include and expand upon our original provision 
in title XIV, supported by the American Public Health Association, 
which would ensure that public transportation workers and other related 
employees are trained to meet the evacuation needs of seniors in the 
event of a crisis. The Secretary of Homeland Security will establish a 
program to conduct security exercises, which will be scaled to meet the 
needs of specific transportation systems and must take into account the 
needs of seniors who utilize those systems. Additionally, another 
provision in this title will ensure that transportation agencies 
receiving grant funding in high-risk areas have mandatory security 
plans in place that must include appropriate evacuation and 
communication measures for the elderly as a component of each agency's 
plan. Both provisions are particularly important since so many of our 
seniors utilize public transportation for access to their everyday 
needs. Furthermore, only public transportation has the capacity to move 
millions of people and provide first responders with critical support 
in major evacuations of urban areas.
  Madam President, these 4 provisions will go a long way in ensuring 
that our seniors are taken care of if we have another national 
emergency or disaster. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita taught us many 
painful lessons that should never be forgotten. I will not forget, and 
I intend to pursue additional legislation aimed at explicitly 
safeguarding the needs of America's seniors in the event of an 
emergency. The time to act to protect our seniors is now.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Madam President, I want to add my thoughts to the 
debate on the conference report accompanying the Improving America's 
Security Act of 2007.
  First, I want to preface my remarks by applauding the chairman and 
ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 
Committee for their work on this important bill. This bill makes 
crucial and long overdue improvements in transportation security, 
critical infrastructure protection and emergency response capabilities. 
There is no higher priority than protecting homeland security and this 
bill is a key component in that effort.
  I am particularly pleased that the Federal Agency Data Mining 
Reporting Act is included in this bill as Section 804. I have been 
working on this legislation for a number of years with Senator Sununu, 
Senator Leahy, and Senator Akaka. Many law-abiding Americans are 
understandably concerned about the specter of secret government 
programs analyzing vast quantities of public and private data about 
their pursuits, in search of patterns of suspicious activity. Four 
years after we first learned about the Defense Department's program 
called Total Information Awareness, there is still much Congress does 
not know about the Federal Government's work on data mining. This bill 
is an important step in allowing Congress to conduct oversight of any 
such programs or related research development efforts.
  I supported the provision in the Senate bill which mandates the 
declassification of the aggregate amount of the intelligence budget. It 
is unfortunate that this provision was watered down during the 
conference process to permit the President to waive this requirement if 
the disclosure of this information would harm national security. The 9/
11 Commission found that ``when even aggregate categorical numbers 
remain hidden it is hard to judge priorities and foster 
accountability.'' I concur with the Commission, that aggregate budget 
figures ``provid[e] little insight into U.S. intelligence sources and 
methods.'' Sharing this information with the American people will 
provide a greater level of transparency and accountability and in the 
end make us more secure.
  I am pleased that this bill includes provisions to ensure proper 
oversight of homeland security grants. The bill requires regular 
auditing of homeland security grant funds to ensure that they funds are 
spent appropriately and effectively. I will continue to work with my 
colleagues to improve oversight of homeland security funding.
  The conference report also includes important nonproliferation 
provisions. It would establish a Presidential coordinator for the 
prevention of WMD proliferation and terrorism. Currently, there is no 
point person in the Federal Government in charge of coordinating 
nonproliferation initiatives and efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism. 
We face a variety of worldwide terrorist threats. One of the most 
serious of those threats is the possibility that terrorists could 
smuggle fissile materials into the United States. This provision is an 
important contribution to our efforts to secure these materials and 
prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
  I must note that one provision of this bill troubles me greatly. That 
is the so-called John Doe provision concerning immunity for citizens 
making tips of possible terrorist threats and government officials 
acting on those tips. This provision was not in the bill that was 
passed in the Senate, nor was it in the bill that passed the House. It 
was apparently inspired by a lawsuit filed after six Muslim imams were 
told to get off a plane they had boarded in Minneapolis, but the 
Judiciary Committee never had the opportunity to study it or perfect 
it. Regardless of its merit, this provision should have received more 
careful consideration by the Senate. I am deeply concerned that as 
written this provision appears to endorse racial, ethnic, and religious 
discrimination. The best way to prevent terrorism is through solid law 
enforcement and intelligence work, not through scare tactics or racial 
profiling.
  I voted for this bill because it makes key changes to address 
security needs. However, our Nation's vulnerabilities demand more and I 
will continue to work to ensure that our vital homeland security needs 
are met.

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