Dhs Cyber Incident Response Teams Act of 2019
Floor Speech
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Mr. FLEISCHMANN. Madam Speaker, Ranking Member, and Chairwoman Lowey, I rise today to lend my strong support to all of the appropriations bills that will be before us today, but specifically as the ranking member on the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, I am here to speak about the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, specifically.
As we have heard today from speakers on both sides of the aisle, this is not an ideal bill, but I think it is a very good and strong bill. It is a good bill crafted in a difficult environment--probably one of the most difficult environments I have seen in my almost 10-year tenure. I tell you, Madam Speaker, it is worthy of our support, as are all the bills here today.
I specifically, though, as the ranking member, the highest Republican on this subcommittee, want to thank Chairwoman Roybal-Allard. She is the head Democrat and we have worked well together. We don't view the world and we don't view this bill in total agreement, but we got it done, and that is very important, again, in these trying times.
This Homeland Security bill before us provides nearly $1.4 billion for continued construction of border barriers in high-priority areas identified by Customs and Border Protection and provides funding for the same level of detention beds as we had in fiscal year 2019. It also maintains the same transfer and reprogramming authorities.
The Department of Homeland Security is a vast agency and, looking at the bill beyond the investments in border and immigration enforcement, there are so many activities, programs, and initiatives that we all agree on across the aisle, across the Capitol, and really across the great United States of America. As I have said before, 90 percent of the funding in this bill we all can agree on.
We have solid investments in our great United States Coast Guard, and let's remember, Madam Speaker, this is the one branch of the military that did not get paid during the government shutdown last year, but the men and women of the Coast Guard bravely continued their missions. For the Coast Guard--the military branch with so many domestic missions on top of its contributions to the Nation's defense--this bill provides desperately needed new air and marine assets as well as reinvesting in personnel.
We have plus-ups for the Secret Service to continue leading law enforcement on national special security events and protection for all the Presidential candidates.
We have plus-ups for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to help keep our government's IT system secure, as well as providing for technical assistance to States, Tribes, and localities.
We have more than $17 billion for FEMA disaster relief to ensure that we are ready for whatever storms hit our homes plus increases of over $90 million for grants to State and local communities to prepare for and mitigate disasters.
Further, as our loved ones travel over this holiday season, the bill provides an increase of over $210 million for the operations and equipment of TSA in fiscal year 2020.
Madam Speaker, finally, I thank the staff who have worked so hard together. I thank, especially, the staff on both sides, majority and minority, Darek, Kris, Bob, Karyn, Mike, Elizabeth, Rachel, Victoria, Dena, and Kristin, plus Daniel from my own staff, for all of their hard work to put together this good bill.
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Mr. FLEISCHMANN. Madam Speaker, again, I want to thank Chairwoman Lowey and Ranking Member Granger, also Ranking Member Simpson.
Today, I rise, again, in support of another one of our great appropriations bills, the Energy and Water and Related Agencies bill.
As the Speaker knows, I spoke earlier in very fervent support of the Homeland Security bill. The Energy and Water bill is robust. It is well-funded.
I just actually spoke with a member of the press outside, and the gentleman asked me, over the past few years, why the Energy and Water bill had been increased so much. The answer is clear: It is because Republicans and Democrats in the House and the Senate and the administrations, including this administration as well, understand that the Nation needs what the Department of Energy is doing.
Now, obviously, I have a bit of a bias. I represent, I think, one of the greatest Department of Energy reservations at Oak Ridge. We have a national lab. We have the Y-12 plant. We are building the uranium processing facility. I thank the chairwoman for the robust funding for that great construction project.
Also, legacy cleanup all across the United States of America--not only in Oak Ridge, but in Savannah River; in Hanford, Washington; in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Republicans and Democrats and communities are working together cleaning up legacy waste.
There was a time in America when we were not as careful--during the Cold War and prior to and during World War II--when we manufactured these weapons and there was legacy waste out there. It is the obligation, I think, of the Federal Government to clean it up. It is high time that we do it, and we are doing it with our funding priorities.
So whether it is our great national labs--there are 17 of them all across the United States: the NNSA, the Office of Science--it hearkens me, again, at a time when we see a divided nation, a divided Capitol, that we can come together in very strong, fervent, and robust agreement to support this funding bill for the Department of Energy and its related agencies. That means our locks will be funded with the Army Corps of Engineers and all of our key DOE functions will continue to be supported at the highest level.
This keeps America at the forefront. We lead the world in supercomputing. We lead the world in materials research. We lead the world in advanced manufacturing.
So I thank my colleagues for their robust support of this bill, and I urge its support with the other bills in this plan.
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