Waiving Points of Order Against Conference Report on H.R. 2360, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2006
WAIVING POINTS OF ORDER AGAINST CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2360, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - October 06, 2005)
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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, later today the House will consider a measure that provides $30.8 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security. It also makes significant structural and policy changes to the Department. I am pleased that the conferees adopted many of the policy changes for which the Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee advocated during the Department's authorization process.
For example, I am pleased that the Department is directed to undertake a quadrennial review, examine and justify multiyear procurement projects and develop a long-term strategy to ensure optimal development of explosive detection systems. I have to say, it is a sad state of affairs, Mr. Speaker, when Congress has to tell the Department to do planning.
In the short history of the Department, it has earned a reputation for lacking focus and being crisis-driven. It took the London bombing to remind the Department that it is the lead Federal agency for protecting rail and transit. It took Hurricane Katrina to remind the Department that it is the lead Federal agency for all disasters, not just terrorism. We do not have the luxury of time to wait until the Department gets another wake-up call. In July, the Secretary of Homeland Security proposed a number of structural changes. Since that time, Katrina revealed dysfunction at the highest levels of the Department.
I cannot understand why the conference report adopts many of the Secretary's proposed changes wholesale as if Katrina never happened. The establishment of a preparedness directorate would not make us any more prepared if FEMA is not fixed. The Department's changes are outdated. If we grant them to Mr. Chertoff, we will find ourselves revisiting this issue again after the next catastrophe. We need to fix the Department properly, not with duct tape and wires, what this conference report does by giving Secretary Chertoff carte blanche on the agency's structure.
In response to this error, 13 members of the Homeland Security Committee have introduced the Department of Homeland Security Reform Act of 2005. This bill recognizes Katrina happened, and among other things, creates a statutory requirement that the head of FEMA have disaster and emergency preparedness experience. Current law requires the head of the National Park Service to have substantial experience in land management. The least we can do is require the director of FEMA to have prior experience in disasters. We do not need any more Brownies.
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