Homeland Security

HOMELAND SECURITY -- (Senate - September 28, 2006)

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise this morning to take note of the real progress this Congress has made and is on the verge of making in strengthening our homeland security.

This progress--reform of FEMA, protection of our chemical facilities and improved security for our seaports--should not be overlooked as we conclude a hectic month.

In the midst of all the charges that Congress has failed to accomplish all that we should, I want to call attention to the many times when, in fact, Members have cooperated among committees, between Chambers, and across party lines to make real progress to benefit the American people.

The 109th Congress has had many such accomplishments that belie the stereotype of a rancorous debating society that is unable to enact and improve the security of our country.

Let me focus on three major accomplishments by Congress in the area of homeland security. I note that these accomplishments should become law shortly as we complete work on the Homeland Security appropriations bill.

The first accomplishment was reaching agreement on a broad array of reforms to improve the Department of Homeland Security, including urgently needed reform and reinforcement of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The recommendations for improvements the result of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security's 7-month investigation into the failed preparations and response to Hurricane Katrina. This investigation, which was completely bipartisan, included 23 hearings, testimony and interviews of some 400 people, and a review of more than 838,000 pages of documents.

The committee's recommendations will make FEMA a distinct entity within DHS. Why does that matter? It matters because it gives FEMA the same kinds of protections enjoyed by the Coast Guard and the Secret Service. It protects FEMA from arbitrary budget cuts or departmental reorganizations that are implemented without congressional review.

FEMA's Administrator, under the reforms included in the appropriations bill, will become the President's principal adviser for all-hazards emergency management.

Another important reform is that the legislation reunites preparedness and response and makes FEMA responsible and empowered for all phases of emergency management--preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery.

A very important reform will be the creation of response strike teams to ensure a more effective response to disasters.

What we will do is create in the 10 regions of the United States multi-agency task forces comprising representatives from every Federal agency that is involved in responding to or preparing for disaster. They will train and exercise with their State and local counterparts, with NGOs, such as the Red Cross, and with the key for-profit businesses, such as utility companies. That will ensure that they won't need to be exchanging business cards in the midst of the next disaster.

I was struck during our investigation of Hurricane Katrina that so many people from FEMA Region I--the region the Presiding Officer and I are from, New England--were sent down to Louisiana to help with the response to Hurricane Katrina. The problem, of course, is they didn't know the people, they didn't know the geography, they didn't know the culture, they didn't have knowledge of what assets could be mobilized in the response. These regional teams will ensure that does not happen again.

We also addressed issues such as chronic staffing shortages at FEMA, the need for better pre-positioning of emergency supplies and tracking of shipments, better grant-making authority to improve coordination regionally and with local responders, and the need to provide survivable and interoperable communications.

We also revised the Stafford Act to bring it up to date and make it more flexible and responsive.

The second major homeland security accomplishment of this Congress is still a work in progress, but I am very optimistic that it will, in fact, become law, and that is the port-security bill which this Chamber recently passed unanimously. Senator Murray and I have led a bipartisan effort to enact this legislation. There have been many other Members on both sides of the aisle involved, including on my committee Senator Coleman and Senator Lieberman.

With 361 ports in this country and some 11 million shipping containers arriving each year, we desperately need better assurances that our seaports and these containers are not going to be used to bring weapons, explosives, bio-terror compounds, or even a squad of terrorists into our country.

The vulnerability of our seaports is perhaps best underscored by an incident that occurred in Seattle in April, when 22 Chinese nationals were successful in coming all the way from China to Seattle in a shipping container. If 22 illegal Chinese nationals can come to our country via a shipping container, it shows we still have a lot of work to do to ensure better security at our seaports.

The legislation this Chamber passed is balanced legislation that strengthens our security while recognizing the importance of trade and not bringing the shipment of containers to a halt. The port-security package fills a dangerous gap in our defenses. I hope we will enact it before leaving here this week.

The third area of accomplishment involves the security of chemical plants, plants that either use, store, or manufacture large quantities of hazardous chemicals.

Last January, I held a hearing in which I asked several experts: What are your greatest concerns? What gaps do we have in our homeland security? The lack of regulation of our chemical plants came up time and again. Our existing protections are a patchwork of different authorities--State, Coast Guard, and voluntary industry standards. They are inadequate, given the threats we face.

Now, this has been a very difficult debate, but I think it is so important to remember that right now, the Department of Homeland Security lacks the authority to set risk- and performance-based standards for security at our chemical facilities despite the fact that terrorism experts tell us al-Qaida is focused on chemical plants and chemical explosions.

We have some 15,000 chemical facilities around the country, including more than 3,000 sites where a terrorist attack could cause considerable casualties among nearby populations. Language in the DHS appropriations bill would, for the first time, empower DHS to set performance-based security standards for high-risk chemical facilities. That is approximately 3,400 facilities across this country.

Very importantly, this legislation will allow the Secretary of Homeland Security to shut down a noncompliant plant. I fought very hard for this authority to be included in the appropriations bill. It does no good to empower the Secretary to set these risk-based, performance-based standards but then provide the tools to enforce them.

I recognize there are many chemical plants and chemical companies across this country which have voluntarily taken strong steps to improve their security in the wake of the attacks on our country on 9/11. Unfortunately, the Department of Homeland Security has told us there are many plants which have not improved their security at all or which have taken insufficient measures. We can no longer rely on just voluntary compliance with industry standards.

So this legislation is landmark legislation. It closes a dangerous gap in our homeland security, and it has been included in the Homeland Security appropriations bill.

I would note that the language includes a three-year sunset. The reason for that is we will want to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, the effectiveness of the regulations, and also consider other measures that were not included in this bill. The committee I am privileged to chair unanimously reported chemical-security legislation that was more comprehensive than the measures included in the appropriations bill. This will give us a chance to evaluate the efforts that have been taken, that will be taken, and then to go back and look at some of the issues that were not included.

I want to be very clear. This is a major step forward. It will help close a dangerous gap in our homeland security, and it is significant progress in eliminating or at least lessening a significant risk to our country.

These are three significant steps forward: the reform of FEMA, the port security bill, and the new authority for DHS to set security measures for chemical facilities. Each of them was made possible because of bipartisan cooperation. At times in this Chamber, we berate ourselves for failing to achieve consensus on legislation that is so important to the American people, but we did it in these three cases--or we are on the verge of doing it--and it is because we did have good cooperation and strong leadership. It was not easy. But the legislation we are passing will advance our ability to protect the American people.

I compliment all of the Members of the Senate, our partners on the House side, as well as members of the administration who have stepped forward and worked so hard to make these reforms a reality. Our success in advancing these achievements in strengthening our homeland security should be a source of justifiable pride to the Members of this body.

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