Date: 2011-12-07
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Chair. I rise today in support of my amendment #6. to H.R. 10. "Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny" (REINS). This bill amends the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to require Congressional approval of all major rules (rules with an economic impact that is greater than $100 million). If Congress fails to act within 70 days the rule cannot be implemented. This change is targeted directly at executive agencies and does nothing to create jobs. Under current law Congress can provide oversight and disapprove of a promulgated bill. My amendment would exempt all rules promulgated by the Department of Homeland Security. As a Senior Member of the Homeland Security and Ranking Member of the Transportation Security Subcommittee. I am very concerned about any legislation that would hinder the Department of Homeland Securitys ability to respond to an emergency. The bill would add new review requirements to an already long and complicated process. allowing special interest lobbyists to secondguess the work of respected scientists and staff through legal challenges. sparking a wave of litigation that would add more costs and delays to the rulemaking process. potentially putting the lives. health and safety of millions of Americans at risk. The Department of Homeland Security simply does not have the time to be hindered by frivolous and unnecessary litigation. especially when the safety and security of the American people are at risk. According to a study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute. public protections and regulations "do not tend to significantly impede job creation". and furthermore. over the course of the last several decades. the benefits of federal regulations have significantly outweighed their costs. There is no need for this legislation. aside from the need of some of my colleagues to protect corporate interests. This bill would make it more difficult for the government to protect its citizens. and in the case of the Department of Homeland Security. it endangers the lives of our citizens. In our post 9/11 climate. homeland security continues to be a top priority for our nation. As we continue to face threats from enemies foreign and domestic. we must ensure that we are doing all we can to protect our country. DHS cannot react to the constantly changing threat landscape effectively if they are subject to this bill. Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002. we have overhauled the government in ways never done before. Steps have been taken to ensure that the communication failures that led to 9/11 do not happen again. The Department of Homeland Security has helped push the United States forward in how protect our nation. Continuing to make advance in Homeland security and intelligence is the best way to combat the threats we still face. The Department of Homeland Security is tasked with a wide variety of duties under its mission. One example of an instance where DHS may have to act quickly to establish new or emergency regulations is the protection of our cyber security. In the past few years. threats in cyberspace have risen dramatically. The policy of the United States is to protect against the debilitating disruption of the operation of information systems for critical infrastructures and. thereby. help to protect the people. economy. and national security of the United States. We are all affected by threats to our cyber security. We must act to reduce our vulnerabilities to these threats before they can be exploited. A failure to protect our cyber systems would damage our Nations critical infrastructure. So. we must continue to ensure that such disruptions of cyberspace are infrequent. of minimal duration. manageable. and cause the least possible damage. Like other national security challenges in the post 9/11 era. the cyber threat is multifaceted and without boundaries. Some cyber attackers are foreign nations that utilize their military or intelligencegathering operations. whereas others are either operating alone or are connected to terrorist groups. In addition. there are cyber threats that are international or domestic criminal enterprises. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). the number of cyber incidents reported by Federal agencies to USCERT has increased dramatically over the past four years. from 5.503 cyber incidents reported in FY 2006 to about 30.000 cyber incidents in FY 2009 (over a 400 percent increase). The four most prevalent types of cyber incidents and events reported to USCERT during FY 2009 were malicious code. improper usage. unauthorized access and incidents warranting further investigations (unconfirmed malicious or anomalous activity). Critical infrastructure in the Nation is composed of public and private institutions in the sectors of agriculture. food. water. public health. emergency services. government. defense industrial base. information and telecommunications. energy. transportation. banking and finance. chemicals and hazardous materials. and postal and shipping. With cyberspace as their central nervous systemit is the control system of our country. Cyberspace is composed of hundreds of thousands of interconnected computers. servers. routers. switches. and fiber optic cables that allow our critical infrastructures to work. Thus. the healthy. secure. and efficient functioning of cyberspace is essential to both our economy and our national security. In light of an attack that threatens the United States cyber protection. Homeland Security officials may need to issue emergency regulations quickly. Attacks can be sent instantly in cyber space. and the protection of our critical infrastructure cannot be mitigated by cumbersome bureaucracy. As the Representative for the 18th District of Texas. I know about vulnerabilities in security firsthand. Of the 350 major ports in America. the Port of Houston is the one of the busiest. More than 220 million tons of cargo moved through the Port of Houston in 2010. and the port ranked first in foreign waterborne tonnage for the 15th consecutive year. The port links Houston with over 1.000 ports in 203 countries. and provides 785.000 jobs throughout the state of Texas. Maritime ports are centers of trade. commerce. and travel along our Nations coastline. protected by the Coast Guard. under the direction of DHS. If Coast Guard intelligence has evidence of a potential attack on the port of Houston. I want the Department of Homeland Security to be able to protect my constituents. by issuing the regulations needed without being subject to the constraints of this bill. The Department of Homeland Security deserves an exemption not only because they may need to quickly change regulations in response to new information or threats. but also because they are tasked with emergency preparedness and response. Take for example U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which identifies prosecutorial discretion as "the authority of an agency charged with enforcing a law to decide to what degree to enforce the law against a particular individual." When ICE favorably exercises prosecutorial discretion. it "essentially decides not to assert the full scope of the enforcement authority available to the agency in a given case." In the civil immigration enforcement context. prosecutorial discretion may take the form of a broad range of discretionary enforcement decisions. including: focusing enforcement resources on particular administrative violations or conduct. deciding whom to stop. question. or arrest for an administrative violation. deciding whether a suspect will be detained or released on bond. and granting deferred action. granting parole. staying a final order of removal. or other alternative to obtaining a formal order of removal. Let me be clear. prosecutorial discretion is not amnesty. it is done on a case by case basis to ensure that the limited resources ICE has to work with are put toward removing those who pose a threat to the safety and security of the American people. Allowing ICE to identify and focus on priorities strengthens immigration enforcement by targeting the right individuals. Furthermore. ICE Director John Morton issued a memorandum in March of 2011 that outlined the enforcement policies for the agency. Among the priority enforcement cases were aliens posing a risk to national security or public safety. recent illegal entrants. and those who are fugitives or have a history of violating U.S. immigration law. Director Mortons memorandum indicates that prosecutorial discretion is by no means widespread. blanket amnesty for undocumented aliens. it is a law enforcement method used by many agencies. including ICE. under Republican and Democratic administrations. In fact. prosecutorial discretion allows ICE to allocate its resources to ensure their enforcement efforts provide for the safety and security of the nation. Why would this rule need additional scrutiny? And another major impact rule deals with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Fee Schedule the final rule will provide DHS with an average of $209 million in FY2010 and FY2011 annual fee revenue. based on a projected annual feepaying volume of 4.4 million immigration benefit requests and 1.9 million requests for biometric services. over the fee revenue that would be collected under the current fee structure. The increased revenue will be used to fund the full cost of processing immigration benefit applications and associated support benefits. the full cost of providing similar benefits to asylum and refugee applicants. and the full cost of similar benefits provided to others at no change. These are the sorts of rules that are going to be needlessly hindered by this Legislation. Again. instead of focusing on jobs we are focusing on regulations that Congress already has the power to review and prevent its implementation if and when necessary. There are many challenges our communities face when we are confronted with a catastrophic event or a domestic terrorist attack. It is important for people to understand that our capacity to deal with hurricanes directly reflects our ability to respond to a terrorist attack in Texas or New York. an earthquake in California. or a nationwide pandemic flu outbreak. On any given day the city of Houston and cities across the United States face a widespread and everchanging array of threats. such as: terrorism. organized crime. natural disasters and industrial accidents. Cities and towns across the nation face these and other threats. Indeed. every day. ensuring the security of the homeland requires the interaction of multiple Federal departments and agencies. as well as operational collaboration across Federal. State. local. tribal. and territorial governments. nongovernmental organizations. and the private sector. We can hinder the Department of Homeland Securitys ability to protect the safety and security of the American people. I urge my colleagues to support the Jackson Lee amendment in order to ensure that regulations that save lives that are promulgated by the Department of Homeland Security are not unnecessarily delayed by this legislation.