October 27, 2006
On the House Floor
The House is currently in recess for the October District Work Period and will reconvene on November 13, 2006.
Deadly Mea Culpa
Earlier this week, buried deep in The New York Times, public editor Byron Calame admitted that the newspaper was wrong to disclose in a June 23, 2006, news article the details of the surveillance program that tracks financial transactions of terrorist suspects. Last Sunday, Calame wrote, “My July 2 column strongly supported The Times’s decision to publish its June 23 article on a once-secret banking-data surveillance program. After pondering for several months, I have decided I was off base. There were reasons to publish the controversial article, but they were slightly outweighed by two factors to which I gave too little emphasis. While it’s a close call now, as it was then, I don’t think the article should have been published.” Unfortunately, even the rare mea culpa of The New York Times public editor can’t stop the damage done to the surveillance program. One of our nation’s leading tools to track, understand and prevent the money transfers that enable terrorist attacks has been irreparably destroyed.
Despite the pleadings of congressional leaders, the administration, including the treasury secretary, and the leaders of the 9/11 Commission, which recommended America implement exactly this type of program, The New York Times chose to publish its story. After the article was published, House Republicans acted quickly and decisively to pass a measure that expressed support for, and condemned the disclosure of, a highly classified program that is essential to tracking terrorist finances and preventing future deadly attacks. Voting against the measure were 174 House Democrats who chose to stand with The New York Times rather than with our intelligence community. Now that The New York Times has admitted that it was wrong to report details about this program, will Nancy Pelosi’s party also admit that it too was wrong to support the program’s disclosure? Will the Minority Party admit that it’s wrong for Al Qaeda to learn about America’s intelligence secrets through a New York Times subscription? Attempts to exploit these illegal disclosures for political gain must stop. Democrats should stand up for America’s intelligence community and condemn all illegal national security leaks.
One Piece at a Time
Over the course of the year, Congress has tried numerous times to pass a comprehensive illegal immigration bill but liberals have made it impossible. And while Congress continues to negotiate with the left, our lax border is an invitation to terrorists, alien smugglers, drug traffickers, and other criminals, many of whom are working right now to exploit weaknesses in our border enforcement. My colleagues and I have decided that enough is enough and are committed to tackling the illegal immigration problem one measure at a time. Yesterday, America scored a big victory when President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law. This much needed legislation authorizes the construction of a 700-mile fence at critical points along our southwest border and requires the Department of Homeland Security to maintain operational control of our borders through a “virtual fence” of security technology. Republicans passed this bill last month despite the 131 House Democrats who opposed it.
In fact, since President Bush took office, funding for border security has more than doubled – from $4.6 billion in 2001 to $10.4 billion this year. The number of border patrol agents has also increased from about 9,000 to more than 12,000, with additional 6,000 agents set to join the force in the next two years. The American people have rightly demanded secure borders and President Bush, my colleagues and I are committed to an enforcement-first approach to stronger border security. The fight for more immigration reform has just begun. Securing our borders is one of the most important things we can do to prevent terrorist attacks and keep our nation safe.
CNN Ended Communism?
“I was friends with Chinese communists and with the Russians with Gorbachev. This was back during the Cold War. I was trying to bring the Cold War, help bring it to an end with the Goodwill Games and a bunch of our initiatives that we worked on with the Russians, and it worked.” – CNN founder Ted Turner on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman, September 21, 2006.
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