Date: 2006-09-29
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. I thank the chairman for yielding. Mr.- Speaker. I want to thank Chairman KING for his leadership. Ranking Member THOMPSON. the ranking mem.berof my subcommittee. Ms. SANCHEZ. and Congresswoman HARMAN for all of the hard work in passing this important bill to protect our ports. Mr. Speaker. I must say that I guess I must have gotten very tired tonight. because I think I misheard my good friend. Mr. THOMPSON. in his description of this bill and about some play we are at. I remember act one. act two. act three being consultation with the other side. I remember working very closely with Members of the other side of the aisle and their staffs. I recall us spending months working this out. I recall early morning meetings w.ith Ms. HARMAN. joining Congresswoman HARMAN to go across the Rotunda to the other side. to try and see if we could begin our journey together. that is. to see that our bill would be close in terms of its tone. in terms of its breadth. in terms of its direction with that of our colleagues on the other side. I can recall the next act when we brought it to the subcommittee. and I can recall getting a unanimous vote out of the subcommittee. I can recall the next act. which was the full committee. We had a 290 vote. and where I come from. that is pretty doggone close to unanimous. We then had the further act which was acting on the floor of the House. and we got a 4212 vote. It was totally bipartisan. Even the two who voted. against it split one Republican and one Democrat. You cannot get much more bipartisan than that. We have worked together to preserve the essence or the guts of the bilrthat we have crafted through our committee structure and which we passed on the floor. I am proud to stand here and say that we have accomplished something that many people thought could not be accomplished. The Senate began their journey several months before we did in terms of a formed bill. Yet we leapfrogged over them in the work that was done in our subcommittee and committee. And I do believe that the actions of this House nudged. if I might use that term. our colleagues on the other side of the Rotunda such that we are able to bring this bill to the floor for completed action tonight on this side of the Rotunda and the other side of the Rotunda. Rather than create an act of political statement. we have created an act of law. That is. this will go to the President. and the President will sign this. So I hope that all who are here in this Chamber will think of the spirit of bipartisanship with which we started this journey that will be part of the end of thisjourney. Today. we have taken a solid step forward in securing our Nation. I do not think there can be any doubt about that. This is not a halfmeasure. This is a major measure. The sums of money authorized in here are significant. The grant program is a stream of $400 million a year for 5 years. That is a $2 billion grant program for our ports across this Nation. That is something we have been looking for for some time. We now authorize it. We authorize other programs that Members on both sides of this aisle have spoken for for a long period of time. all to secure this Nation and particularly to secure our ports. Our enemies have stated thaf they wantto disrupt our economy. murder our- citizens. and destroy our way of life. By passing this bill. we do not make a statement. we actually begin to protect our Nations ports. safeguard the American -people. and increase the Confidence in our international trade routes. The American people expect us to take action to protect our ports. and with this bill we have done precisely that. We have addressed the possibility of our enemies using our open society and free economy against us. We have taken away a.potential weapon. one capable of causing major disruption to our economy. In passing this bill tonight. we are taking rational action to harden our domestic critical infrastructure. ensuring that those who wish to harm us are unable to have access to those critical facilities. But this bill is more than just protecting our local facilities. Securing international maritime trade is incredibly complex. At any one time there are hundreds of vessels and literally hundreds of thousands of containers crossing the oceans on the way to our ports. With this bill. we have developed a strategy to implement a system to scan each container before it enters our domestic stream of commerce. We will be able to identify and track containers destined for our shqres. using training and technology to identify any that may pose a risk. We are pushing out our borders beyond our geographical limits to make a rational approach to stopping the opportunity that those who would kill us and maim us and destroy our economy would otherwise have. We have reached out in this way to our trading partners to include them in this strategy to keep international trade flowing with minimal disruption. This strategy allows us to integrate security into international commerce. allowing. us to facilitate trade rather than hinder it. so that we do not allow the terrorists to succeed. We have given the Department of Homeland Security the tools it needs to protect against the potential of weapons of mass destruction being delivered to our shores. We have created a program for our best minds to develop even more effective and less intrusive scanning technology to make security completely transparent. seamless and even more effective. Recognizing that technology is only as good as the people who use it. we provided a multitude of grants available to our local port facilities so that -they can train their employees in emergency procedure and response. That is something that we very much wanted to emphasize. and I would like to give Congressman REICHERT credit for pursuing that in such a strong way. The bill also provides for more Customs afid border protection agents. which should enable the Department to continue its mission of both building security and facilitating legitimate trade that is critical to the Nation. We provided for the Coast Guard to create joint port security operational centers in our Nations major ports to coordinate effective response to any incident that threatens the security of these ports. Some may wish to focus on what the bill does not do. when we should appreciate it for what it does. It strengthens our port facilities. it enhances the security. of the. international supply chain. increases the resiliency and confidence in our economy. By doing all of this. the significant piece of legislation and all of those that worked so hard to bring it to passage. including Chairman KING. Ranking Member THOMPSON. Congresswoman HARMAN. Ranking Member SANCHEZ and our colleagues in the Senate all have joined together to increase the security of our Nation. and I. for one. am proud to have been involved.