Amplifying Local Efforts to Root Out Terror Act of 2016

Floor Speech

I rise in support of H.R. 4401, the Amplifying Local Efforts to Root Out Terror Act, or the ALERT Act, of 2016.

Mr. Speaker, this is the latest in a series of efforts by this Congress and, in particular, the Homeland Security Committee in a bipartisan manner to work to thwart terrorist threats in our country.

Mr. Speaker, we work continuously to look back at the 9/11 Commission recommendations to make sure that we are fulfilling all of the areas of trouble that were identified by that commission where we can make ourselves more secure from terrorist threats.

We also worked very hard as a committee looking at the Boston Marathon bombing. We worked on that and found out that information sharing was not as great as it should have been. In fact, it was one of the things that could have prevented that from occurring.

The police commissioner of Boston testified in front of the committee and was asked: Did you know the information that the Federal law enforcement officials had?

His answer was: No.

Then he was asked: Would it have been helpful for you to know that?

And he said: Of course.

Yet, that information wasn't available.

We have worked in the committee to make sure that information is shared at the local, regional, county, and State levels as well as the Federal law enforcement agency communities.

We have worked together successfully with groups like the Joint Terrorism Task Force to make sure that information is shared on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, and, in a policy sense, even on a monthly basis, looking back and making sure that we have a seamless system.

Mr. Speaker, we had an initiative that I joined with my colleague from Georgia on as well as four other Members of this House where we traveled to look at the issue of foreign terrorist fighters and the threat to our country resulting from their actions.

Sadly, in the United States, there are over 200 people who have been identified as leaving this country to fight for ISIL in Syria and Iraq. Yet, we went through not only the Middle East, but through Europe with our allies there, to see what threats were there in terms of using those countries as portals into the United States, making sure that not only the 200-plus people from the U.S., if they came back, would be able to deal with their threats, but also the threats imposed by other countries coming back to the U.S.

We found out that in Istanbul, for instance, at the airport there, there are 61 million flights in that airport alone. That is probably 11 times, roughly, the whole population of my State of Massachusetts. Think of that. We found out that there wasn't security measures in place there that we take for granted in our own country.

We also worked hard with our allies in Europe so that they would do the basics and have passenger name records there so that we could trade information to find out who is boarding these planes. We are glad to report that the European Union has acted on that and that has been closed. They are working on areas with the exterior borders that we talked to them about in our trip.

We also have been successful as a Congress to work on the visa waiver country issue to make sure that those areas where people are coming back and have traveled to Syria and Iraq are vetted the way they should be vetted.

We also realize that not only do we have to fight this war on multiple fronts, but we know that back home the threat of domestic violent extremists remains the number one threat, according to every expert. We know from the work that we have done collectively that we could do more on that front in preventing it.

We were told about fusion centers, which are tremendous assets to our security at the local, State, or Federal level, where we worked together gathering and compiling information on a realtime basis. Yet, those fusion centers and the employees there wanted to do more.

They were telling us how they could do more if they were given more training, more coordination, and more information to deal with at the local and State level. It would create a great multiplier effect with the frontline law enforcement people that would make our country safer.

Along those lines, the gentleman from Georgia put in legislation that I am proud to be a lead sponsor on to make sure that the Department of Homeland Security is there authorizing and providing these resources through the fusion centers to our State and local counterparts.

And I think that translating that not only as information to stop and coordinate activities reacting to terrorist acts, but working at the root cause of sharing information that they can use and apply at the root level to prevent that kind of activity, puts those people closer to the community in a position where they can do more. To me, that is one of the most important things we can do as a Congress, to make sure that that work is being done.

This is a very important bill. It is a bill that I think, once again, we are seeing the role of Congress in making sure that things don't fall between the cracks in terms of our national security, make sure that the resource is there for our local and State counterparts.

I favor this bill because I think it is one of those areas that we found most in need of amplification. I hope this bill is passed.

In closing, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for his leadership on this.

With regard to the gentleman from Washington State (Mr. Reichert), I was a district attorney for 12 years and had my own attached State police force. I worked with local law enforcement, and I understand just what he was talking about in terms of the need to communicate, to work together cohesively, and to share information. We are all safer when that occurs.

Mr. Speaker, I started my day this morning in Boston. We met at the Federal Reserve. The ``we'' that met was something that, perhaps, you wouldn't have seen a few years ago but that we see today because of the efforts by Congress, the Homeland Security Committee, the gentleman from Georgia, and me in working together across the aisle and in making sure these things happen.

It was a meeting on surface transportation threats and terrorist threats. We had our staff and the head of the FBI in our region there. We had the head of the ATF. We had our regional head of the TSA there. We had State officials, local officials, local police, regional police. We had authorities, like the transportation authorities, all present in the room--filling up the room--working together, sharing information. Yet we know we have to do a better job of making sure that occurs going forward.

With regard to many of the things we worked on in the committee, some of those agencies made procedural changes. They adopted new priorities that they had not had before. There is the reporting to Congress on the information of foreign terrorist fighters from our European allies, as well as making sure that the Joint Terrorism Task Force is sharing information.

With this legislation, we are making sure, going forward, that that is going to continue to be done because oftentimes, unfortunately, we react to a major crisis, respond, and provide the resources. Then, after a period of time, our attention wanes, and we are not constantly making sure that it is being done.

This legislation will make sure that it is being done going forward, and it will make sure that these groups are reporting back to Congress on a regular basis so that we are in a position to know that it continues to go forward all the time because, as our attention and our resources and our defensiveness might wane, the threats by terrorists will always be there, unfortunately, in the world we share. This will make sure that the reporting back to Congress occurs as well.

I am pleased to say that Congress has an integral role in this. We have crossed a very divided line, unfortunately, that we live with today from a partisan standpoint, and we will work together time and time again, because if we can't work together on issues of our national security, what can we work together on?

I thank my colleague from Georgia (Mr. Loudermilk). I thank the chairman of the committee, Mr. McCaul; the ranking member, Mr. Thompson; and all of the committee members for their efforts going forward. This ALERT Act will keep us safer, not just tomorrow, but in the decades ahead.

I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source