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Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008

Floor Speech

Date: May 9, 2007
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: National Security


DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 -- (House of Representatives - May 09, 2007)

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Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, this amendment is a bad idea.

In 1996, I think it was Congressman Sensenbrenner who proposed the US-VISIT system. That was 11 years ago, and the US-VISIT is not yet fully implemented. That system is to biometrically check aliens who are entering the United States. I believe that to divert Homeland Security from that mission at this point would put our government at further risk.

We are promised by Homeland that US-VISIT will be completely implemented at airports by the end of this year. Land ports, they're not implementing. So I think it would be a huge mistake to start some new system when we haven't even implemented the Sensenbrenner plan from 1996.

I'd like to note further that in the body of the motion to recommit it suggests that it is true that the 9/11 hijackers were not admissible to the United States when they were admitted. But the inspectors at the airport didn't know that, not because of the biometric system. It was because the reasons for their inadmissibility lay in paper files on microfiche in a box in Florida.

We are about to receive a technology upgrade plan from USCIS. In fact, we have been told it is sitting at OMB today. What we need to do is to implement US-VISIT, integrate it with the new technology plan that is about to be brought online. It will be a dreadful mistake for the Congress to defer a Department that is not terrifically functional as is from this vital mission by creating still another program that will not actually do its job.

Mr. DENT. Will the gentlelady yield?

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. No, I will not. That will not actually do its job because we have failed to do the screening of aliens.

I would thank the chairman of the committee for yielding this brief time, and I would urge my colleagues not to divert the Department from the vital mission of implementing US-VISIT.

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