Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012
Floor Speech
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Mr. ROGERS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, this goes to the fundamental heart of why some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle--and I think their intentions are good--but fundamentally do not understand the role and function of the intelligence community to protect the United States of America.
Just as the gen tle lady stated, the newspaper reported a very credible threat to the security of the United States and to the violence of the citizens and maybe two prominent cities here on our homeland. So every day somebody gets up around the world with the sole intention of killing innocent Americans in this country through an act of terrorism.
In addition to that, people are trying to penetrate our cybernetworks all over this country, not only for intellectual property, but to cause harm and damage. We have nuclear treaties and nuclear proliferation that we ask and push and nudge our intelligence services to be on top of and not to make a mistake. Don't make a mistake that would result in a catastrophic event anywhere in the world, let alone here in the United States of America.
I know some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't want to deal with the hard issues of the border. But taking it from an open, aggressive, build a fence, put more resources on the border, getting serious about policing our southern border to take it into the classified, nobody can see it, see, aren't we doing something, is the wrong thing to do for this country.
We need to stand up for these men and women who we ask every day to protect this country. When you try to divert resources to gang violence from our intelligence services, that sends a very clear signal to America: you don't get it.
I want terrorists caught. I want a great raid on somebody like Osama bin Laden. I want all of the resources of the intelligence community geared to keeping us safe.
We have a Border Patrol; we have National Guard. We have lots of other ways to secure our border. Let's not waste the resources. Let's not give a slap in the face to every member of our intelligence community who is risking their life today to get a piece of information, to take an action that keeps us safe here in the homeland.
I strongly urge the rejection of this misguided amendment.
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