Date: 2003-06-24
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to talk about H.R. 1416. the Homeland Security Technical Corrections Act. . I would like to commend our chairman. the gentleman from California (Mr. Cox). for his leadership and stewardship. and also. of course. the gentleman from Texas for the stewardship that they have on this new Select Committee on Homeland Security and for their efforts to push this bill and to get it included on the suspension calendar. H.R. 1416 is a historic bill because it is the first bill that our committee. the Select Committee on Homeland Security. will do. I trust that it is going to be the first of many bills that this committee will work on in a very bipartisan manner as we continue to tackle the many difficult issues surrounding homeland security. Over the last month. members of our committee worked very diligently to look at the oversight function through a number. of informative hearings and briefings. Unfortunately. however. the message is all too often the same: the Department of Homeland Security is not moving fast enough to fill the gaps that exist in so many areas of homeland security. H.R. 1416 comes to the floor on the heels of a select committee delegation trip and field hearing in Southern California just this past weekend. The hearing focus was on one specific aspect of homeland security. port security. Our ports are one of the most vulnerable threat risks in our Nation. and we need to provide the means and resources for adequate security. Every year. more than 4 million cargo containers accounting for 35 percent of all the U.S. international trade passes through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Over the weekend we saw for ourselves just how important this port is to economic and trade commerce issues for the United States and the global economy. And the message that we received from Southern California witnesses involved in port security was familiar to all of us because we had heard it from other witnesses in other areas of homeland security: they are understaffed. they are underequipped. and they are underfunded. Members of the Coast Guard told us they have not received the funding that they need for basic security upgrades. The United States Customs Inspector Program is understaffed. and employees that are there do not have the equipment that they need to adequately" secure and check the containers. and resources needed are just. the beginning of the problem that we saw at our ports. We heard from the sheriffs from both Los Angeles and Orange counties who are in desperate need of funding. especially Orange County. because unlike Los Angeles. we are not considered a high threat urban area and because funding of one of our most costly expenditures. personnel costs. simply does not exist at this point. They told us they have not seen any of the money that they were promised to cover personnel and other costs. The funds simply are not getting through the pipeline down to the local level. In my community. the city of Anaheim where Disneyland is located. our police department spends over $20.000 every day that we go from yellow to orange alert just on our police department. If we go to red alert. it is double that. almost $40.000 additional money every day. and yet we have not helped at the Federal level to get that money down to them. It does not include equipment that they need. supplies. the fire department personnel or personnel at the emergency operations center. and then there are other costs to consider also. For instance. the Joint Terrorism Task Force that has been set up and is very effective in sharing intelligence and inforniation between FBI and CIA and the local law enforcement agencies. the State of California. they want to participate in that and they do. but at their own costs. The city of Anaheim. at its own cost. the city of Santa Ana. at their own cost. the County of Orange. at their own cost. Our first responders do not have the necessary resources to allow them to dedicate a few of their personnel to these effective antiterrorism programs. This is a striking example of good solutions that exist where there are no resources to adequately implement them. The. Department of Homeland Security has done a decent job in outlining what its mission is. However. we need to move quickly and forcefully to achieve that mission. The Department has a number of programs in place to improve homeland security. But so far the first responders. the people right at street level. handling Information. trying to understand what is happening. trying to stop things from happening. and God forbid having to react to what happens. they have not seen the information they need nor the resources they need. and I hope that this is not just the first piece of legislation that our committee does. but that we continue our oversight function and our program function to get this done.