11/20/02 8:10:31 AM Pacific Standard Time
Sen Byrd Blasts Homeland
Bill - 'This Is A
Hoax'
Statement In The Senate By Sen Robert Byrd R-WVa
11-19-2
"I remember years ago, when I was in the House of Representatives, sending
out a little booklet to the people in my then-congressional district of how
our laws are made ...[describes the process of hearings, committees, debate,
reports, etc. etc.]... we all remember how those laws are made according
to the script as prepared there in those handsome little booklets that we
send out. That is how the American people expect this Congress to operate.
That is the way we are supposed to
operate.
But the way this bill
was brought in here, less than 48 hours ago, a brand-new bill. It had not
been before any committee. It had undergone no hearings, not this bill. It
is a bill on our desks that has 484 pages. There are 484 pages in this
bill.
It has not been before
any committee. There have been no hearings on this bill. There have been
no witnesses who were asked to appear to testify on behalf of the bill or
in opposition to it. It did not undergo any such
scrutiny.
It was just placed on
the Senate Calendar. It was offered as an amendment here. And so here it
is before the Senate now. There it is. That is not the way in which our children
are taught how we make our laws--not at
all.
The American people
expect us to provide our best judgment and our best insight into such monumental
decisions. This is a far, far cry from being our best. This is not our best.
As a matter of fact, it is a mere shadow of our best. Yet we are being asked,
as the elected representatives of the American people, those of us who are
sent here by our respective States are being asked on tomorrow to invoke
closure on these 484
pages.
If I had to go before
the bar of judgment tomorrow and were asked by the eternal God what is in
this bill, I could not answer God. If I were asked by the people of West
Virginia, Senator Byrd, what is in that bill, I could not answer. I could
not tell the people of West Virginia what is in this
bill.
There are a few things
that I know are in it by virtue of the fact that I have had 48 hours, sleeping
time included, in which to study this monstrosity, 484 pages. If there ever
were a monstrosity, this is it. I hold it in my hand, a monstrosity. I don't
know what is in it. I know a few things that are in it, and a few things
that I know are in it that I don't think the American people would approve
of if they knew what was in
there.
Even Senator Lieberman,
who is chairman of the committee which has jurisdiction over this subject
matter, even he saw new provisions in this legislation as he looked through
it yesterday and today. As his staff looked through it, they saw provisions
they had not seen before, that they had not discussed before, that had not
been before their committee
before.
Yet we are being asked
on tomorrow to invoke cloture on that which means we are not going to debate
in the normal course of things. We are going to have 30 hours of debate.
That is it, 30 hours. That is all, 30 hours; 100 Senators, 30 hours of
debate.
And this is one of the
most far-reaching pieces of legislation I have seen in my 50 years. I will
have been in Congress 50 years come January 3... Never have I seen such a
monstrous piece of legislation sent to this body. And we are being asked
to vote on that 484 pages tomorrow. Our poor staffs were up most of the night
studying it. They know some of the things that are in there, but they don't
know all of them. It is a sham and it is a
shame.
We are all complicit
in going along with it. I read in the paper that nobody will have the courage
to vote against it. Well, ROBERT BYRD is going to vote against it because
I don't know what I am voting for. That is one thing. And No. 2, it has not
had the scrutiny that we tell our young people, that we tell these sweet
pages here, boys and girls who come up here, we tell them our laws should
have.
Listen, my friends:
I am an old meatcutter. I used to make sausage. Let me tell you, I never
made sausage like this thing was made. You don't know what is in it. At least
I knew what was in the sausage. I don't know what is in this bill. I am not
going to vote for it when I don't know what is in it. I trust that people
tomorrow will turn thumbs down on that motion to invoke cloture. It is our
duty.
We ought to demand that
this piece of legislation stay around here a while so we can study it, so
our staffs can study it, so we know what is in it, so we can have an opportunity
to amend it where it needs
amending.
Several Senators have
indicated, Senator Lieberman among them, that there are areas in here that
ought to be amended. What the people of the United States really care about
is their security. That is what we are talking about. We don't know when
another tragic event is going to be visited upon this country. It can be
this evening, it can be tomorrow, or whatever. But this legislation is not
going to be worth a continental dime if it happens tonight, tomorrow, a month
from tomorrow; it is not going to be worth a dime. There are people out there
working now to secure this country and the people. They are the same people
who are already on the payroll. They are doing their duty right now to secure
this
country.
This is a hoax. This
is a hoax. To tell the American people they are going to be safer when we
pass this is to hoax. We ought to tell the people the truth. They are not
going to be any safer with that. That is not the truth. I was one of the
first in the Senate to say we need a new Department of Homeland Security.
I meant that. But I didn't mean this particular hoax that this administration
is trying to pander off to the American people, telling them this is homeland
security. That is not homeland security. Mr. President, the Attorney General
and Director of Homeland Security have told Americans repeatedly there is
an imminent risk of another terrorist attack. Just within the past day, or
few hours, the FBI has put hospitals in the Washington area, Houston, San
Francisco, and Chicago on notice of a possible terrorist
threat.
This bill does nothing--not
a thing--to make our citizens more secure today or tomorrow. This bill does
not even go into effect for up to 12 months. It will be 12 months before
this goes into effect. The bill just moves around on an organizational chart.
That is what it does--moves around on an organizational
chart.
The Senate Appropriations
Committee, on which Senator Stevens and I sit, along with 27 other Senators,
including the distinguished Senator who presides over the Chamber at this
moment, the Senator from Rhode Island, Mr. Reed, tried to provide funds to
programs to hire more FBI agents, to hire more border patrol agents, to equip
and train our first responders, to improve security at our nuclear powerplants,
to improve bomb detection at our airports. That committee of 29 Senators--15
Democrats and 14 Republicans--voted to provide the funds for these homeland
security needs. Those funds have been in bills that have been out there for
4
months.
But the President said
no--no, he would not sign it. President Bush is the man I am talking about.
He would not sign that as an emergency. These moneys have been reported by
a unanimous Appropriations Committee. But this administration said no. So
that is what happened. These are actions that would make America more secure
today. Did the President help us to approve these funds? No. Instead, the
President forced us--forced us--to reduce homeland security funding by $8.9
billion, and he delayed another $5 billion. This is shameful; this is cynical;
this is being irresponsible. It is unfair to the American people. And then
to tell them Congress ought to pass that homeland security bill--that is
passing the
buck.
Mr. President, I call
attention to a column in the New York Times. This is entitled ``You Are A
Suspect.'' It is by William Safire. I will read
it:
"If the homeland security
act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you:" Listen,
Senators. This is what William Safire is saying in the New York Times of
November 14, 2002. That is today. This is what the New York Times is saying
to you, to me, to us: "If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before
passage, here is what will happen to you: Every purchase you make"-- Hear
me now-- "Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription
you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail
you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit
you make, every trip you book and every event you attend--all these transactions
and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as
``a virtual, centralized grand database.'' ... "Political awareness can overcome
"Total Information Awareness," the combined force of commercial and government
snooping. In a similar overreach, Attorney General Ashcroft tried his Terrorism
Information and Prevention System (TIPS), but public outrage at the use of
gossips and postal workers as snoops caused the House to shoot it down. The
Senate should now do the same to this other exploitation of fear." [ see
complete Safire article at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/14/opinion/14SAFI.html
-- Byrd reads the entire article to the
Senate]
If the American people,
if the American public is to believe what they read in this week's newspapers,
the Congress stands ready to pass legislation to create a new Department
of Homeland Security. Not with my vote. Passage of such legislation would
be the answer to the universal battle cry that this administration adopted
shortly after the September 11 attacks: Reorganize the Federal
Government.
How is it that the Bush
administration's No. 1 priority has evolved into a plan to create a giant,
huge bureaucracy? How is it that the Congress bought into the belief that
to take a plethora of Federal agencies and departments and shuffle them around
would make us safer from future terrorist attacks?..."