Date: 2007-05-09
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. Id like to thank my good friend. the gentlewoman from California . for the time. and I yield myself such time as I may consume. The security of the American people. Mr. Speaker. is the primary function of the government of the United States. Since September 11. 2001. we have been working to rebuild our Nation. not only our buildings but also our sense of security. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate all domestic security activities on behalf of the American people was an important first step and has served as the foundation of our continuing efforts to protect our citizens. Today. we consider the third authorization for the Department of Homeland Security. During consideration of this underlying legislation. Members from both sides of the aisle worked to* gether to craft a bipartisan bill. The bill sought to build a core capacity at the Department and bring about targeted personnel. contracting and policy changes. That bill passed the Homeland Security Committee unanimously. But even though the bill passed out of the committee with unanimous support. the majority party is attempting to undo the bipartisan bill by coming forth with a managers amendment that significantly alters the makeup of that bill. The managers amendment strikes key provisions which address highpriority homeland security issues. Out of a total of 86 substantive bill provisions. 26. or almost a third. are amended by the managers amendment and 16. 20 percent almost. are entirely struck. Most of the provisions stricken by the managers amendment had become part of the bill through Republican amendments in the committee process. For example. the managers amendment strikes provisions on the Student and Exchange Visitor Program and eligible uses of interoperability grants. among others. There are two provisions that the managers amendment deletes that I think should be highlighted. Mr. Speaker. The first would strike postemployment lobbying -restrictions. This provision .being eliminated from the bill by the managers amendment would codify the existing ban on senior Department of Homeland Security employees from one part of the Department lobbying other parts of the Department within 1 year of leaving the Department. That reform is stricken from the bill by the managers amendment. The second part of the bill being stricken is a sense of the Congress calling for implementation of the 9/11 Commission recommendation to establish a single point of oversight of homeland security in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. Now. that is one of the key recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. and precisely it is one that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle ran on in the elections. the promise to enact the 9/11 Commission recommendations. Yet here they have an opportunity to follow through on their campaign promise. but. instead. they strike the provision from the bill through the managers amendment. And they dont even allow for the provision to be debated in the form of an amendment on the floor. Mr. Speaker. I was pleased that the Castor amendment. which helps address concerns with the dual implementation of the Florida Uniform Port Access Credential and the Transportation Workers Identification Card. was made in order. But there was another glaring missed opportunity here by the majority on the Rules Committee. The Rules Committee had the opportunity to allow an open rule on this bill. but the suggestion that we do so. that we come forth with an open rule. was voted down by the majority on the Rules Committee. Instead. they decided to. report out a restrictive rule. thereby shutting out Members who had worked diligently to prepare their amendments. They also blocked out any Member who may be watching the debate now or in the process of the developing. unfolding debate and has an idea to improve the bill. No. no. theyre blocked out as well. Theyre shut -out. Its unfortunate that the Rules Committee missed another opportunity to open the debate on this important legislation. as they promised during the campaign that they would. and because of that and the reasons that I have brought out. Mr. Speaker. this rule should be defeated. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.