Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006

TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (Extensions of Remarks - July 01, 2005)

SPEECH OF
HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON
OF MISSISSIPPI
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2005

The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3058) making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, District of Columbia, and independent agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, and for other purposes:

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of this Amendment that would properly fund the government-wide Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

In the wake of 9/11, many Americans have grown concerned that sweeping new law enforcement powers adopted to bolster national security may, in fact, be eroding the civil liberties that they were intended to protect.

The freedoms we enjoy as Americans-indeed, our way of life-are at risk if our government can spy and gather information on us simply under the guise of protecting those freedoms.

I know too well what happens when a government is left unchecked in its surveillance and spying efforts. While I was in college, I attended a speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. My government responded by creating an FBI file on me. It seems like a whole generation of innocent Americans are at risk of having files created on them.

Those of us in Congress tried to address potential governmental violation of civil liberties by creating a Civil Liberties Board as part of the 9/11 bill passed last December. This board was created in response to the Ð9/11 Commission's concerns that the government lacked "an enhanced system of checks and balances to protect the precious liberties that are vital to our way of life." We intended the Board to be the mechanism by which civil liberties and privacy considerations would be elevated throughout and within the Federal Government and its myriad operations and programs.

The President supported and signed the bill. And then failed to fund it less than two months later. He has failed to fund critical border and aviation initiatives contained in the bill. And he has failed to fully fund the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board, giving it a mere $750,000. This lack of funding for a Board-which, by the way, he took almost 6 months to name Members for-suggests a lack of serious commitment to the preservation of civil liberties and privacy rights.

Too often, this White House has chosen to simply ignore that which it doesn't like.

Congress didn't vote to ask the Administration to think about having a privacy and civil liberties board. On the contrary, it voted to establish the Board and then gave the White House the power to fund it in a bill that the President said he supported.

Without an adequate budget, however, the Board is only a shell-a powerless entity unequipped to accomplish the goals envisioned for it by the 9/11 Commission.

Funding the Civil Liberties Board will fulfill our commitment to protect the rights of all Americans as our Nation battles against domestic and international terrorism.

I strongly urge my colleagues to join in support of this amendment.

http://thomas.loc.gov

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