Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2005

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the Allen amendment be laid aside temporarily.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

AMENDMENT NO. 3615

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.

The legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from New York [Mr. Schumer], for himself, Mrs. Clinton, and Mr. Corzine, proposes an amendment numbered 3615.

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To appropriate $100,000,000 to establish an identification and tracking system for HAZMAT trucks and a background check system for commercial driver licenses)

On page 13, between lines 18 and 19, insert the following:

GROUND TRANSPORTATION

For necessary expenses of the Transportation Security Administration to establish an identification and tracking system for HAZMAT trucks and a background check system for commercial driver licenses, $100,000,000.

On page 2, line 17, strike $245,579,000 and insert "$175,579,000".

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, this amendment, which I am told, for my colleagues' benefit, will not be voted on tonight but will be voted on at some point late Monday afternoon, is a very important amendment. It deals with truck security.

As we go forward in the war on terrorism, we learn more and more. One of the things we have learned only in the last 6 months is that the preferred method of destruction of al-Qaida is truck bombs. They have used these bombs in the past, but we were given a new sense of urgency about al-Qaida's use of truck bombs from intelligence that has been picked up in the last 6 months and subsequently made public.

Truck bombs, unfortunately, can create tremendous destruction. We saw that in Oklahoma City. At the same time they are very easy to put together. Ammonium nitrate, which can easily be made into an explosive device, is readily available. Then all you need is a truck filled with ammonium nitrate or some other kind of hazardous material and that truck can cause huge amounts of destruction.

In our brave new post-9/11 world, we have to guard against all forms of terrorism. It is not sufficient to say because on 9/11 the terrorists struck through the air that we can ignore other ways they might seek to hurt us. That means we have to tighten security at the ports and on the rails. It also means we have to look at truck security. Unfortunately, probably of all the areas where terrorists might hurt us, we are doing the least in terms of truck security. We pay some lipservice to it, but I am not aware of very much the Department of Homeland Security is doing at all in terms of defending us against truck security.

One may ask: What can be done? For one thing, we can put some limitation on how ammonium nitrate, especially in large amounts, is distributed. That is not the purpose of this amendment. I might be introducing further legislation in that regard. But second, we can be much more careful about trucks, particularly trucks that carry hazardous materials.

Let me say that right now we do virtually nothing. Only a few months ago, a truck with hazardous material was found missing in Pennsauken, NJ, neighboring the State of New York. They still haven't found the truck. Perhaps the truck was lost. Perhaps more likely it was stolen. But God forbid someone who might be part of a terrorist organization took that truck and is lying in wait to do something that would be terrible and despicable.

Of course, we know a truck bomb struck the people in Oklahoma. It was used by McVeigh. This is not something we are unaware of. Truck bombs have been used by al-Qaida in other parts of the world. Again, I underscore the fact that trucks are sort of the preferred method of terrorism for al-Qaida.

We have lots of these trucks available in America. According to the 1997 Census of Interstate Commerce, 740,000 hazardous material shipments travel each day by truck in America. In the United States, 50,000 trips are made each day by gasoline tankers, many of which hold as much fuel as a Boeing 757. They often end with a late-night delivery to a deserted gas station. Experts say that trucks carrying chemicals such as ammonium nitrate, chlorine, or cyanide form even a more deadly risk. Imagine if al-Qaida or another terrorist organization took 10 of these trucks, parked them near a large, tall building in 10 of our largest cities and exploded them all at once, something that would hardly be inconceivable right now. The amount of lives lost might even, God forbid, exceed those lost on 9/11, and fear would descend across this country.

We have to be doing more. In December of 2002, almost 2 years or more than a year and a half ago, I called on Federal officials to rectify this problem. The first thing that I asked be done is that background checks for truck drivers certified to carry hazardous materials be undertaken. The TSA announced it would do so on May 2, 2003, 5 months later. But despite this progress, much more work needs to be done. There are two particular areas that we think greatly need improvement. Those are the things we are asking for tonight.

The first is tracking technology for trucks. It is very easy. You can buy a car and pay a couple hundred bucks more and have a GPS system which tells exactly where the vehicle is. Wouldn't it make sense that every truck carrying hazardous material was required to have such a GPS system? That would mean if the truck were stolen, if the truck were taken to a far different location than where it should be and the company wished to find out where it was, we could find it in a minute.

Ironically, a country far less developed than ours requires this for all its trucks-Brazil. There is a GPS system on every one of its trucks. In fact, the companies that do it there do it not to combat terrorism but, rather, to deal with theft. They actually make money. The point is this is feasible. It works. It is simple. It is hardly pie in the sky. It probably costs about $200 to install in each truck. I would be happy, if once TSA started implementing this for individual truck drivers who might feel that $200 is too much, even though a rig costs much more than 100 times that, to have the Federal Government pay, although we don't provide that in our legislation. We do require that any truck carrying hazardous material have a GPS system installed. There are many companies that want to put this in place but are waiting until Government rules are in place. Thus far there are no Government rules.

Second, there ought to be a HAZMAT database. Just as we plot the path of thousands of planes in general aviation and commercial aviation and where they go and we know that if they are off course, something is awry and our air traffic control system deals with that, we should do the same for hazardous materials.

The bottom line is, any truck with a hazardous material would simply file a little plan as to where it was going and what deliveries it was making. And then again, if the truck was stolen or went off course, we would know. In Brazil they have a system when the truck goes too far off course, the truck stalls and can't be driven.

We could actually do that here and the money that we are providing would be within the ambit of the Homeland Security Department to do just that. But with this database, if a truck carrying hazardous material would be off course, we would know, and there would be a much greater chance that some kind of action could be taken before the truck was used for terrorism.

As for the background checks of those certified to carry hazardous materials, again, I have been pushing the TSA to do this. They have said they are going to do it. They have delayed it several times, and they have not completed doing it yet. But we urge them to do that as well.

The hour is late. I don't want to hold up you or the President of the Senate or other colleagues. People will have the weekend to read this legislation. Again, it is a rather small amount of money, $100 million. We do offset it. We take money from the human resources account-the same $100 million-so this doesn't increase costs. The bottom line is very simple: On truck security, a lot more must be done.

The amendment I have will help move us in that direction. This is a danger that we face in this country, which we have done virtually nothing about, and we could be moving, for a rather small amount of money, toward making ourselves far more secure.

I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. COCHRAN. I am happy to do that.

Mr. SCHUMER. Can we agree that my amendment will be voted on on Monday afternoon when we resume voting?

Mr. COCHRAN. I think that is the understanding.

Mr. REID. Through the Chair to the Senator from New York, as I indicated, members of the leadership are lining up votes for Monday and, in all likelihood, the Senator's would be the first vote. We don't have a unanimous consent agreement to that effect but-

Mr. COCHRAN. That is consistent with my understanding of the schedule as well.

Mr. SCHUMER. Thank you.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have done about all we can do tonight. That is my understanding. I say to the manager of the bill that tomorrow, it is my understanding, there is an amendment to be offered by the majority. I cannot remember by what Senator, but someone told me about it.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, the distinguished majority leader, Senator Frist, intends to offer an amendment tomorrow morning. So we will have that before the Senate.

Mr. REID. On this side, Senator Corzine is willing to offer an amendment, Senator Lautenberg is willing to offer one, and maybe the distinguished Democratic leader will be ready to offer one. Whenever we come in, there will be opportunities to offer these amendments. It is my understanding that the Senate is not going to stay until a late hour. If those amendments are offered, we will have plenty to do Monday night, unless there is some agreement on amendments.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I think this is a good plan. The Senate has done good work today. I think the outline the Senator from Nevada has given us is a thoughtful way to handle the bill. We will be here tomorrow morning and continue to make progress on the bill. We will be ready to cooperate with all Senators to the fullest extent possible.

Mr. SCHUMER. Will the minority whip yield for a question?

Mr. REID. Yes, I am happy to yield.

Mr. SCHUMER. I didn't hear exactly what has been said about the plan. There was another amendment Senator Clinton and I were going to offer. I was going to cover it this evening, but she could not be here because of the illness of her husband.

Mr. REID. I say to the Senator, there will be an opportunity to offer other amendments next week. He is on the list.

Mr. SCHUMER. Thank you, Mr. President.