Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2007
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007 -- (Senate - July 12, 2006)
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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of this amendment offered by my colleague from a northern border State, and want to emphasize that homeland security along our northern border is of the utmost importance.
I think the amendment offered by the Senator from Montana is a very important amendment for us to add to this legislation because of both its efficiency and effectiveness in helping us secure our northern border. For us, with great transportation crossings as we have in Washington State, including ferry transportation crossings, there was the instance in the Northwest where a terrorist was caught coming across from Canada into Port Angeles who was detained.
But we are here today to talk about the vastness of the northern border that sometimes is penetrated by people who are not checking in at various checkpoints but try to sneak into the country along the vast, rugged areas of our Northwest terrain.
So it is very important we get tough on border security by passing this amendment, which has cutting-edge technology that will actually help save this country dollars and provide greater border security.
The unmanned aerial vehicles, as Senator Baucus has talked about, are already being deployed on dangerous patrols in the Middle East and in some places along our borders here at home. But the UAVs, I believe, are already in limited use on the southern border, and they have proven their effectiveness. To me, it is something we ought to expand on for our overall capability to help respond to incidents.
With their extended range, these UAVs can conduct prolonged surveillance, sweep over remote border areas, relaying information to border agents on the ground. As has been described by some of the people I have met with on this issue, they literally create a communications network from the air to the ground that can get vital information to those who are involved in border security who can more effectively, then, do their job.
This process provides critical intelligence about the areas that have previously gone unsecured for so long, and it allows our agents to better prepare and respond to incidents involving both illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.
Now, I know there has been the Insitu Group from our State that has provided this technology in our Operation Iraqi Freedom and the global war on terror. They have flown many hours and been very effective with that technology. So I believe it is important for us to now get aggressive about using this same technology--that has been proven so successful--on our northern border and to have the continuation of its use on our southern border so we can modernize the patrol capabilities and reach hundreds of miles that have previously been unguarded.
As I said, we do this at a much more effective rate than could possibly be done with any other tools and technology or manned efforts. So we will be giving our agents the best technology possible for them to guard our southern and northern borders, using improved intelligence. That is why I am so happy to work with Senator Baucus to direct the Department of Homeland Security to do a pilot on this UAV surveillance along the northern border.
I will continue to work with him and many of my other colleagues to encourage Homeland Security to run this pilot program in affected areas throughout the Northwest and making sure that the investment here is realized so we can continue the expansion of this operation.
As I said, the technology will help law enforcement at every level do their job, and it will help us in fighting this influx of drug problems we are also facing in the Northwest as well. And it will certainly give our citizens at home more security.
We cannot turn our backs on the needs of the northern border while we are looking at some of the issues on the southern border. So let's make sure we are effective in covering both areas of our country and giving law enforcement the broadest tools possible to do their job.
Mr. President, I yield the floor
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