[Vision2020] House Quickly Passes Homeland Security Bill

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (January 10, 2007) Spokesman Review -

"The House passed a broad homeland security bill Tuesday that requires all
cargo on U.S.-bound ships and passenger planes to be scanned for explosives,
expands programs to track weapons of mass destruction, and bolsters
intelligence gathering along the border."

Representative Bill Sali, who continues to be inaccessible to the citizens
of Idaho from his website at http://sali.house.gov/, voted against this
bill.

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House quickly passes homeland security bill 
Sept. 11 report basis of legislation

Nicole Gaouette 
Los Angeles Times
January 10, 2007

WASHINGTON - The House passed a broad homeland security bill Tuesday that
requires all cargo on U.S.-bound ships and passenger planes to be scanned
for explosives, expands programs to track weapons of mass destruction, and
bolsters intelligence gathering along the border.

The bill, which implements many of the recommendations of the Sept. 11
commission, is the first in the 100-hour legislative drive spearheaded by
Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

It passed 299-128, with 68 Republicans joining Democrats.
 
While it could bolster the Democratic Party's national security credentials,
it also could fall short of its aims. Democrats did not designate funding
for most of the costly initiatives, and critics charge some are impractical.

Industry groups and the Bush administration objected to the requirement that
within three years all shipping cargo arriving from major overseas ports be
scanned. Republicans complained about the lack of hearings on the 279-page
bill, and Democratic allies in the Senate questioned whether it is too
ambitious.

House Democrats defended the legislation, which is based on and sometimes
exceeds suggestions by the bipartisan panel that examined the response to
the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That report was issued in July
2004.

"Don't be fooled by those who say this bill moves too quickly," said Rep.
Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

About half the recommendations were enacted under the Republican-controlled
Congress, but the commission has given Congress and the administration a
slew of failing grades for its performance on implementing their reforms.

Pelosi glossed over the issue of funding programs authorized in the homeland
security bill. The bill contains only one authorization - for an airport
checkpoint screening fund that will get $250 million in 2008.

The bill is the first in a series that Democrats plan to pass in their
100-hour agenda before the president's State of the Union speech later this
month. Today they will take up a bill to increase the federal minimum wage
from $5.15 an hour to $7.25.

As lawmakers debated the homeland security measure, the administration
issued a statement declaring it "cannot support ... the bill in its current
form."

The Senate must pass the bill before it goes to President Bush.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.