9/11 RECOMMENDATIONS IMPLEMENTATION ACT -- (House of Representatives - October 07, 2004)
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Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 3 ½ minutes.
(Mr. WAXMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, the House is taking up legislation of enormous importance: how to make our Nation safe from future terrorist attacks. Outside of this body the effort to protect our Nation has been a united, bipartisan effort. Against the odds, the 9/11 Commission produced unanimous recommendations about how to protect our Nation. The Senate has carried their work forward. By an overwhelming 96 to 2 vote, the Senate has approved legislation embodying the commission's recommendations. Unfortunately, this bipartisan process has been hijacked in the House.
There are just three numbers that you need to remember: 41 were the recommendations from the 9/11 Commission; 11 were the number of recommendations out of the 41 that they implemented; and 50 are the number of extraneous provisions inserted into the bill.
The missing components are no minor oversights. H.R. 10 does not give the National Intelligence Director the full authority recommended by the 9/11 Commission. It falls short on border security, on aviation security, and on emergency response.
During the first Presidential debate, both President Bush and Senator Kerry agreed that preventing nuclear proliferation was the single greatest threat facing our Nation, yet incredibly the Republican bill does not implement the recommendations for stopping nuclear proliferation.
For the next 30 minutes we are going to talk about the areas of the bill in the jurisdiction of the Committee on Government Reform. Here the same pattern emerges. Key recommendations from the 9/11 Commission are ignored, while damaging extraneous provisions are inserted.
One of the major recommendations of the 9/11 Commission was to improve information-sharing among intelligence agencies. In our committee we unanimously adopted an amendment to implement the information-sharing provisions recommended by the commission. These essential provisions, however, even though adopted unanimously by the committee, were dropped by the Republican leadership on the way to the House floor.
At the same time, H.R. 10 includes extraneous provisions that are both dangerous and controversial. In one provision, and most people may not even be aware of it, the legislation establishes a fast track legislative procedure that allows the executive branch to undo all of the bill enacted in the legislation. The President can then send legislation to Congress that reverses the reforms we have just enacted, and Congress would be prohibited from amending the President's proposal.
And here is another inexplicable extraneous provision. The bill actually repeals financial disclosure requirements for the intelligence agencies. Under this legislation, top intelligence officials no longer have to reveal if they own assets worth over $5 million, $25 million, or even $50 million.
The substitute amendment that will be offered by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez) addresses all of the Commission's recommendations, it has the same structure and provisions as the Senate legislation that passed 96 to 2. It is that legislation that we should be enacting today.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased at this time to yield 3 ½ minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) who has taken such a strong leadership role in this legislation and is a cosponsor of the Shays-Maloney bill, which is part of the Menendez substitute.
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Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen).
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Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield for the purpose of making a unanimous consent request to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran).
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Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Tierney), a member of the Committee on Government Reform.
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Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, how much time remains?
The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) has 4 minutes remaining. The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) has 3 ½ minutes remaining.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum).
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Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).
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Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch).
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Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Chairman, I just want to point out to my colleagues, we are talking about something of the most significant importance to this Nation. We should not allow politics to be played with this matter.
We have had a commission that was set up by a vote of the Congress. They came back with a unanimous recommendation. The other body adopted their recommendations unanimously, Democrats and Republicans. I strongly urge support for the Menendez substitute and a rejection of the Republican partisan bill.
Mr. Chairman, I urge rejection of H.R. 10 and support for the substitute amendment so we can be in sync with the bipartisan vote in the Senate and the bipartisan recommendations before us.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.