Senator Chris Dodd: Archived Speech
For Immediate Release

Senator Dodd Statement on the Homeland Security Appropriations Conference Reports

October 7, 2005

WASHINGTON - Senator Chris Dodd today delivered the following statement on the Senate floor regarding the Homeland Security Appropriations Conference Report (remarks as prepared):

"Mr. President, I rise to discuss the fiscal year 2006 Homeland Security appropriations bill. The Senate passed this measure earlier by Voice Vote.

I would like to begin by thanking the principal authors of this Conference Report: Senator Gregg and Senator Byrd. I would also like to acknowledge the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee: Senator Cohran. It is no easy task to write a bill that provides for our domestic security needs. I commend our colleagues and their staffs for the hard work they put into crafting this legislation.

I feel compelled to come to the Floor because notwithstanding the efforts of our colleagues and notwithstanding the adoption of this Conference Report, I have deep concerns about how this measure funds our country's vital homeland security activities.

In many crucial respects, this Conference Report continues a pattern of failure on the part of the present Administration and the leadership of this Body to address the acute and ongoing needs of our nation's homeland security infrastructure.

Allow me to read a letter I received three days ago from the Governor of Connecticut, who happens to be a Republican.

".[I]n a time when the threat of terrorism remains elevated and natural disasters such as the recent hurricanes have reminded us all of the staggering power of nature, [the cuts in this bill] simply [defy] rational explanation.

"The Conference Report inexplicably contains cuts that exceed those in the original House or Senate bills or the President's proposed budget. Funding for the State Homeland Security Grant program is halved, from $1.1 billion to $550 million, while funding for the Urban Areas Security Initiative is reduced from $885 million to $765 million. Those programs, along with the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention program, have accounted for the bulk of [homeland security] funding our state has received.

"Of the money available for the State Homeland Security Grant program, states will receive a mere 0.75 percent in guaranteed funding. The balance is to be distributed by the Department of Homeland Security based on risk, though how -- or when -- that assessment is to be made is not clear.

"Under the Conference Report, guaranteed funding for Connecticut in Fiscal Year 2006 would amount to barely $7.13 million. This is down by two-thirds from some $21 million in Fiscal Year 2005 -- itself a reduction from nearly $46 million in Fiscal Year 2004."

My Governor concludes her letter by saying: "The funding contained within the Conference Report is utterly insufficient to support the actions needs to protect the people of our state, to say nothing of the millions of travelers and tons of truck, train and barge cargo that pass through Connecticut every year.

Mr. President, in an age when terrorism continues to be a threat to our nation, one would think that the Congress of the United States would be doing everything it can to shore up our domestic security -- to make it as impregnable as possible against those who wish us harm. Yet, when we look at this Conference Report, I do not believe it does enough to protect our people from terrorism. We are simply not investing the resources that are required to make this nation as safe as possible. Instead of filling in the gaps that continue to exist within our homeland security foundation, we are letting those gaps and cracks grow in several critical respects.

I was particularly disturbed to see that the FIRE and SAFER Grant programs -- vital firefighter assistance grants that I was pleased to author with Senators DeWine, Warner and Levin -- were cut by $60 million over Fiscal Year 2005 levels. As the Governor of my State says, funding cuts of this nature defy rationality when you consider the devastation recently wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the unprecedented burdens placed on local emergency first responders, who are on the domestic front lines in the fight against terrorism.

For the past three years I have come to the Floor and offered legislation that would implement the recommendations made by the Rudman Commission. As we all know, our former colleague, Warren Rudman -- a former Republican Senator from New Hampshire -- chaired a Blue Ribbon Commission sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations that consisted of many distinguished Americans, including George Shultz, William Webster and Harold Varmus.

The Rudman Commission concluded that our country's homeland security infrastructure was "drastically underfunded" and that our nation was "dangerously unprepared" to respond effectively to a terrorist attack. The Commission recommended that our nation invest no less that $20 billion a year for five years to take the minimum steps necessary to protect all Americans from natural and man-made threats. Regrettably, this Conference Report neglected to implement the recommendations of the Rudman Commission -- providing only $3.4 billion of the $20 billion the Commission identified as essential.

In March, 2004, we watched the train system in Madrid, Spain, attacked by terrorists with nearly two hundred dead. Earlier this year, we watched the London Underground and double-decker buses attacked by terrorists with dozens dead. Just yesterday, the New York City subway system was placed on high alert. Yet, in response to this clear and present danger to our nation's largest transit system, the present Administration and Republican leadership of this Body have in effect cut funding for transit security, providing funding levels that do not even keep pace with expected inflation.

There is an added irony to this. At a time when we are dealing with record high gas prices and the Administration is encouraging Americans to conserve energy by taking public transportation when and where they can, it is actually doing less than it did last year to ensure that our public transit systems are as safe as possible.

What more will it take before the Administration and the leadership of this body realize that we are not investing nearly enough in our homeland security infrastructure and our emergency first responders?

When it comes to meeting the security needs of our country, this Administration and leadership in Congress are pursuing a policy that -- at best -- can be called benign neglect. That has become painfully apparent in light of the inadequate response to meeting the needs and mitigating the suffering of thousands of people along the Gulf Coast. And it has been reinforced by this Conference Report's failure to make essential investments to keep all Americans safe from the risk of terrorism."


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