Homeland Security

I agree that the President cannot operate alone in this area without the involvement of Congress and the Courts. I renew my call for action on H.R. 3038 -- the Guantanamo Detainees Procedures Act -- that would establish tribunals with clear standards and due process and would provide a timely process to charge, release, or repatriate the approximately 450 prisoners at Guantanamo. Congress must ensure that justice is delivered swiftly and responsibly in order to punish terrorists, prevent future attacks, and ensure swift and just processing of those detained. The Congressional abdication of responsibility in this area over the last three years has resulted in a completely dysfunctional system for the detention of enemy combatants that has weakened our credibility with our allies and failed to meet our own onstitutional standards.

My bill looks towards the future in terms of what energy we are going to be using.  It takes us off of our addiction to oil by funding research and development into alternative forms of energy, such as hydrogen power, solar power, and wind power.

This is all about national security as well.  Our addiction to energy from the Mideast is a dangeorus policy.

This bill brings universities to the table.  Programs like Future Gen will be administered by the Department of Energy in coordination with universities.

As a former journalist I have the utmost respect for the freedom of the press. But the New York Times has repeatedly abused that freedom by publishing classified information to the detriment of our national security, in the process putting lives in danger and possibly breaking the law. Revoking the congressional credentials of Times reporters does not restrict their rights - it merely restricts their access to the Capitol Complex. Let's not forget that the New York Times is our guest at the Capitol. The paper has no right, constitutional or otherwise, to have a presence here. The paper has worn out its welcome and its time for them to go.

This Administration is angry that the media leaked the story about it snooping into the bank records of millions of Americans. It supporters in Congress want to formally condemn the New York Times. What a bunch of baloney. It is about time the media did its job of protecting the public interest. If the media and this Congress had shown some independence from the party line of this Administration, the claims of WMDs would have been dismissed, and fact there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11 would have been well established and we would not have gone to war against Iraq.

A few years ago, a movie, Wag the Dog, told of how a US administration misused its communications power to create phony stories to put the nation into an international conflict. This Administration not only wagged the dog in Iraq, but, with the help of its fabricators at the Rendon and Lincoln groups, it has wagging a whole kennel.

In a free society the media cannot be a lap dog of any Administration. The First Amendment states, 'Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech', except of course, under this Administration.

These hearings on illegal immigration and border security are six years late and millions of dollars short. With complete Republican control of legislation and enforcement of the law for six years, you would think that a party calling so vigorously for border security and enforcement of immigration law could have solved the problem of illegal immigration by now. But the Republican Party seems to be all talk on this subject. Today's Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing was just another in the long list of hearings held and planned by this Republican-led Congress that produce absolutely no solutions to a problem the American public cares about.

Last week in Committee... Although two of my committees were idle, the House Armed Services Committee was very active last week. On Tuesday, the Full Committee met to discuss the realignment and bed-down of forces returning to stateside locations from Europe and the Far East. Since the end of the Cold War, our overseas basing structure has remained largely unchanged. The purpose of the hearing was to receive testimony from the Department of Defense on the plans to close many overseas basing locations and bring forces back to the United States.

On Wednesday, there were two more hearings. The first was on the U.S. Space Industry and how it relates to National Security. Basically, without our GPS, Weather, Com, Surveillance, and Imaging satellites, our quality of life would be vastly different. We would return to living a 1960s lifestyle and fighting wars similar to the way we fought in Vietnam. For example, one target can be destroyed today with one bomb using GPS guidance. During the Vietnam War, to destroy one target took an entire flight of aircraft (4 to 6 F-111 fighters) each armed with 6 to 8 bombs. Read more...

The passage of my resolution of inquiry was a critically important step forward in protecting the privacy and constitutional rights of millions of Americans who are deeply concerned about the scope and legality of the NSA's domestic surveillance program. I want to thank Chairman Sensenbrenner for his steadfast cooperation and willingness to work in a bipartisan manner to pass this resolution. Bipartisan support for this resolution sends an unequivocal message to Attorney General Gonzalez that stonewalling the Committee's request for information regarding this program is unacceptable. It is unconscionable that the Administration continues to ignore Congress' Constitutional authority to oversee legal safeguards, which were put in place to protect the civil liberties of all Americans. It appears that this Administration has assembled what news reports have called 'the largest database ever amassed in the world' from the telephone records of ordinary Americans, without the lawful supervision of FISA courts. It is clear that this Administration has arrogantly disregarded the law, and we must now immediately hear the legal justification of this program.

The nation has been in an uproar over granting amnesty to undocumented workers who cut our lawns or work in the restaurants where we eat, but it really should be outraged about plans to grant amnesty to those who murder, kidnap, or maim Americans in Iraq.

The current hue and cry over the Administration's accessing of bank records to stop funds from flowing to terrorists completely misunderstands the way the American people think about their government. As hard as it is for many to believe, most voters trust their government to keep their focus on the war on terror and not use the information it gets to invade privacy. The fundamental disconnect here is that the left cannot believe that this reservoir of trust exists, but it does.

While the President possesses the inherent authority to engage in electronic surveillance of the enemy outside the country, Congress regulates wiretapping within the United States. And Congress intended to fully occupy the field when it passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requiring court approval for domestic eavesdropping.

There is no limiting principle to the Administration's argument that as commander in chief the President can do as he chooses during the war on terror. We are left solely to rely upon the good faith of the executive, and that is not good enough. When the executive shows that it is infallible, a good faith standard may be enough; but they are no more infallible than Congress. The Constitution doesn't say, as my opponents on the floor argued 'trust us.' In fact, in its system of checks and balances, the Constitution actually says, 'don't trust us,' and sets each institution as a check on the self-aggrandizing tendencies of every other.

Electronic surveillance of al Qaeda operatives and others seeking to harm our country can and will continue; it can and should be done in compliance with the law.