Remembering 9/11

Floor Speech

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, we are now approaching the 10th anniversary of 9/11. As with countless others who experienced all that happened that day, recounting 9/11, assessing its implications on our Nation is both a profound and deeply personal undertaking.

I will never forget the moments when I learned what happened. I was in the House gym. I was a Senator then and still went to the House gym. There is a little TV on top of the lockers, and somebody pointed out--one of our colleagues who was in the House with me from the other side of the aisle said: Look on the TV. It looks like a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.

We all gathered around and watched the TV and came to the conclusion that it was probably a little turbo plane that had lost its way. We kept our eyes on the TV, and then, of course, we saw the second plane hit the second tower, and we knew it was not just an accident.

I quickly showered, dressed, rushed to get into my car, and as I was driving quickly to my office, I saw another plane flying low over the Potomac, and I saw a big plume of smoke, which obviously was the plane aimed at the Pentagon. I said to myself, ``World War III has started.''

I quickly called my wife, and our first concern was our daughter who went to high school just a few blocks from the World Trade Center. We didn't know what happened. The towers were on fire. We actually took out the almanac to see how high the trade center was to see whether it could fall in the direction of her school and whether it would hit it. For 5 hours, we couldn't find Jessica. They had successfully evacuated the school, but because they shut down the elevators in the school, they all had to walk down the stairs. She was on the ninth floor, and, being Jessica, she escorted an elderly teacher who couldn't get down very quickly and lost her way from the group. Of course, praise God, we found her.

That was just the beginning of the anguish. The next day, Senator Clinton and I flew to New York. I will never forget that scene. I think of it just about every day. The smell of death was in the air. The towers were still burning. People were rushing to the towers--firefighters, police officers, construction workers--to see if they could find the missing. The most poignant scene I think of all the time is literally hundreds of people, average folks of every background, holding up little signs--``Have you seen my daughter Sally?'' with a picture, ``Have you seen my husband Bill?''--because at that point we didn't know who was lost and who was not. It was a very rough time, and we think of it every day.

We know what happened, and it is something that will remain in our minds for the rest of our lives but, of course, not close to those who lost loved ones either during the horrible conflagration or in these later years. Now is the time for the 10th anniversary, so it is a good time to take stock of the effect of the trauma and what it means, both locally and nationally.

Obviously, every one of us in America was scared, shocked, traumatized, horrified, angry, and heartbroken. At first, we didn't know what happened. Then, as we learned who had attacked us and why, we had to confront a crisis for which we didn't feel prepared. It was an experience we as New Yorkers and Americans were not used to at all. We felt so vulnerable. Were we now going to be the subject of attack after attack from stateless, nihilistic enemies we poorly understood and were even more poorly prepared to fight? There was this doctrine of asymmetrical power: Small groups living in caves were empowered by technology to do damage to us--horrible damage--that we couldn't stop. Could it be that our vast military was a poor match for a small group of technologically savvy extremists bent on mass murder and mayhem, directed from half a world away? It seemed more likely--certain even--that attack after attack would come our way from a small group willing to use any tactic, from a box cutter and a loaded plane to weapons of mass destruction, focused solely on massive loss of life and damage to the economy, not to mention to our collective psyche and confidence as a people.

It certainly was a hammer blow to the great city in which I live and have lived my whole life. It raised the question of its future. People everywhere were writing the obituaries on downtown Manhattan. People and businesses were leaving or seriously contemplating leaving. Being diffuse was the answer, not concentrated. Some wrote that maybe now densely populated, diverse cities such as New York would no longer have a future. A permanent exodus seemed imminent. Downtown New York would become a ghost town. Who would work here again? Who would live here? Who would dine or see a show here? What global firm would locate thousands of jobs here? It was not an exaggeration to say that New York's days as the leading city on the global stage seemed as though they could be over.

But our response was immediate, proactive, unified, and successful. In the days, weeks, and first months after 9/11, America as a society and, by extension, its political system came together and behaved in a remarkable way. New Yorkers, as always, did the same. There immediately developed a sense of shared sacrifice and common purpose that gave rise to a torrent of actions in the private and public spheres.

Amongst the American people, there was an unprecedented outpouring of voluntary help--a tradition deeply rooted in our American tradition of community service and voluntary action noted by observers as far back as Alexis de Tocqueville, who, in the earliest days of our Republic, observed:

Americans of all ages, all conditions, all minds constantly unite. Not only do they have commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but they also have a thousand other kinds: religious, moral, grave, futile, very general and very particular, immense and very small.

Fueled by this reaction, our government went to work immediately, at all levels, collaborating on the Federal, State, and local levels.

In Washington, DC, the policy response to the situation at hand was remarkable for its productivity, its extraordinary speed, and, overall, the positive impacts it made both in the short term and long term. All of what we did was far from perfect, but when our government is able to be this nimble, responsive, and effective, it is worth asking what the elements of its success were so that we might think about how we can apply them to future situations such as the one we are in now.

If I were to characterize our policy actions post-9/11, I would say they were nonideological, practical, partisanship was subdued; the actions were collaborative, not vituperative; they were balanced and fair; they were bold and decisive; and they were both short- and long-term focused. Let's take a quick look at each.

We were nonideological. Post-9/11, we were driven primarily by facts, not primarily by ideology. We asked, ``What does the situation require and how might we best execute that'' not, ``How can I exploit this situation to further my world view or political agenda or pecuniary self-interest?'' We didn't have a debate about the nature of government and whether or how we ought to support disaster victims or the need for housing or to get small businesses and not-for-profits back open, nor did we wring our hands about the appropriateness of rebuilding infrastructure or responding to the lack of insurance available for developers; rather, we attacked each problem as it became apparent. We professionally engaged, we compromised, and we hammered out a plan to address each problem as it arose. And we did it fast.

We were tempered in our partisanship. Partisanship is never absent from the public stage, but the degree to which it is the dominant element in the many influences on public policy waxes and wanes. In the days after 9/11, we were able to keep partisanship on a short leash.

I remember being in the Oval Office the day after I visited New York with Senator Clinton, and we told President Bush of the damage in New York. I asked the President: We need $20 billion in New York; we need a pledge immediately. Without even thinking, the President said yes. New York is a blue State, one that didn't support President Bush. He didn't stop and weigh and calculate politically; he said yes, and, to his credit, he stuck by that promise in the years to come.

We were collaborative, not vituperative, unlike recent tragedies, such as the Fort Hood shooting, where some sought to heap blame on President Obama, or the Gabby Giffords shooting, where premature blame was mistakenly directed at the rightwing for spurring the attacker which, in turn, begat a round of unseemly recriminations. Unlike those examples, following 9/11, people refrained from using the powerful and exploitable event as an opportunity to blame President Bush or President Clinton for letting an attack happen.

Rather than looking back and hanging an iron collar of blame around the neck of a President to score political points, people from both parties were willing to look forward, to plan forward, and to act forward. This, in turn, helped create a climate where collaboration was possible. And, to his credit, the President, as I mentioned, did not think about the electoral map or political implications of supporting New York.

We were bold and decisive. We did not shrink from the big thing or fail to act on multiple levels at once. On one front, we crafted the $20 billion aid package to rebuild New York. On another, we crafted the PATRIOT Act. On still another, the military and intelligence communities planned the invasion of Afghanistan to root out al-Qaida. These were big moves, with massive implications for life, the national coffers, and the structure of our society. None of the moves was perfect, but rather than, for example, derail the $20 billion aid package to New York because you might think we do not have the money to spend or blocking the PATRIOT Act because you believe it does not do enough to produce civil liberties, in the period after 9/11, those with objections made a good-faith effort to have their points included in nascent legislation, and had some real success, such as building in punishments against those who leak information obtained from wiretaps or preventing information from unconstitutional searches from abroad from being used in a legal proceeding.

But, in the end, on the PATRIOT Act, for example, Democrats--who were in the minority and could have played the role of blocker--let it pass with a pledge to improve it over time, rather than scuttling it entirely, because while there were parts of it that some disagreed with strongly, there were parts that were absolutely necessary.

Compare this to our current stalemate on fiscal policy and the economy, where time after time the ``my way or the highway'' view seems to prevail, leading to inaction, gridlock, and failure to do what the economy truly needs.

We were balanced and fair. On the one hand, we were pragmatic. We made the airlines and owners of the World Trade Center and other potential targets immune from potentially bankrupting lawsuits. It was not an easy decision. It was strenuously opposed by some in the trial bar and other Democratic allies, but it was a reasonable one.

On the other hand, we were just. We created, with billions in financing, the Victims Compensation Fund, the VCF, so no victim or their loved one would be denied access to justice. It proved to be a win-win. The crippled airline industry, so critical to our economy, was able to get back up and running, and every injured person or loved one of those lost had an expedited and fair system to pursue a claim of loss.

This harkened back to the kind of grand bargains on big issues that are the very foundation of effective government in the system of diffused power that we were bequeathed by our Founders, the kind of bargains the current state of politics make so elusive today.

We were short- and long-term focused. We were concerned with both short-term support, via FEMA aid to homeowners, renters, and small businesses, and with long-term competitiveness. We invested heavily in transportation infrastructure to move millions in and out of the central business districts, even while we supported the arts, community groups, parks, nonprofits, and more to create the vibrant and growing 24/7 downtown we have today--a hub that is at the very center of the Nation's economy and culture--far from the horrible view we had that the downtown would become a ghost town shortly after 9/11.

In short, the response to 9/11 by all Americans, by both parties, is a roadmap for how our political system ought to function but is not now functioning.

I am not a Pollyanna. I understand the inherent nature of conflict in the political realm, and I often partake in it. I also know the trauma of 9/11 was uncommon, and made possible uncommon action. Then we had both the shocking murder of thousands of innocent victims, the heroism of the responders to inspire us, and the advantage of a common enemy to unite us.

But what we were able to achieve then in terms of common purpose and effective collective action provides us with a model for action that we in Washington must strive to emulate and--even if just in part, even if just sporadically--to recreate. We should look back to what happened during 9/11 and apply it to our own time and see how we can make ourselves better and break the kind of gridlock, partisanship, finger pointing that seems to dominate our politics today, only 10 years later.

As we survey the current state of our national psyche and the ability of our political system to debate and then implement effective policy actions for the challenges that confront us, it is painfully clear that, in a relative blink of the eye, the ability of our political system to muster the will to take necessary actions for the common good has degenerated to a place that is much too far away from our actions after 9/11.

The question that haunts me--and should haunt all of us--is this: If, God forbid, another 9/11-like attack were to happen tomorrow, would our national political system respond with the same unity, nonrecrimination, common purpose, and effective policy action in the way it did just 10 years ago or are our politics now so petty, fanatically ideological, polarized, and partisan that we would instead descend into blame and brinksmanship and direct our fire inward and fail to muster the collective will to act in the interests of the American people?

As I ponder it, I have every confidence that the first responders--cops, firefighters, and others--would do now as they did then. Their awe-inspiring selflessness and bravery continues to be a humbling wonder and an inspiration.

I know our building trades workers would again drop everything and show up, put their lives on the line, and throw their backs into the task at hand without waiting to be asked.

I am certain that the American people would come together and find countless ways to donate their time, their energy, their ideas, and their compassion to the cause at hand.

But what of our political system?

I am an optimist, so I want to believe the answer is yes. But I am also a realist, and a very engaged player on the Washington scene, who has just been through the debt ceiling brinksmanship, amongst other recent battles, and that realistic part of me is not so sure the answer is yes.

Today, would we still pass a bipartisan $20 billion aid package to the afflicted city or would we say that is not my region or would we fail to take the long view and say we cannot afford to spend lavish sums of money like that; we have to spend within our means.

Would we be capable of coming together to pass a grand bargain such as the one that immunized the airlines from lawsuits and created the Victims Compensation Fund or instead would we embrace the politics of asphyxiation and find every excuse to block getting to ``yes'' in order to prevent our political opponents from appearing to achieve something positive.

Would all parties refrain from using the occasion to place blame on the President and on each other to gain relative political advantage or would we hear, first, the leaked whispers, then the chatter, then the recriminations that build to the ugly echo chamber of vituperation that has been the sad hallmark of more recent tragedies and national security events.

This political accord following 9/11 had its limits, especially in the aftermath of our invasion of Iraq, when one key rationale for going to war was discredited. But even for those who came to view our involvement as distracting and wrong--distracting from the more important political objective of rooting out al-Qaida and wrong because it could not work; and there was a great loss of life and treasure--even for those of us who came to abhor the war in Iraq, it would have been unthinkable then to root against our country's eventual success in Iraq. Compare that to now, when it is fathomable that some would rather America not recover its economic strength and prowess just yet.

When we think back to where we were then and to how we reacted and compare it to challenges we confront today, it is clear that while the sacrifice of the victims and the heroism of the responders were eternal, our ability to sustain both the common purpose and effective political action they inspired has proved all too ephemeral.

I will not recount details of our current dysfunction, but suffice it to say our politics are paralyzed. Domestically, we are frozen in an illogical arm-wrestling match between the need to get people back to work and jump-start the economy and the drive to rein in the deficit. Globally, we are confronted by an uncertain place in an increasingly competitive world.

Finally, our challenges are psychological and emotional and aspirational, much as they were in the darkest hours and days after 9/11, and these doubts whisper to us the following questions: Are we no longer able to tackle the big issues? Are we a nation in decline?

I am not saying the challenges we face today are an exact parallel for what we faced then. It is obvious they are not. Nor are all the conditions the same. But today's challenges--from the economic to the global to the social--are not intractable, and if any one of our current dilemmas were subject to the same policy environment we had post-9/11, I have no doubt we would make substantial progress in tackling it.

Confronted with a more profound, complex, and existential challenge on 9/11, we rose to the occasion. We confronted the problem before us with uniquely American doggedness, pragmatism, creativity, collaboration, and optimism--optimism--because that is what Americans do and that is who we are. We believe that no matter how bad it gets--whether hunkered down for the winter in Valley Forge after a series of humiliating military defeats or arriving, like Lincoln, in Washington, DC, in 1860 to find half our Nation and next-door neighbor States are attempting to destroy our Union or FDR confronting, in 1932, 25-percent unemployment and an unprecedented deflationary spiral in a modern industrial-financial economy or believing that, indeed, all people are created equal, even while you were rudely ushered to the back of the bus or facing down the totalitarian threats of fascism and communism, and believing that, yes, we will tear that wall down--Americans believe in a brighter tomorrow. We believe in our ability as a people, individually and collectively, both through private action and via our elected representatives who make our Nation's policy, to get things done to make that brighter tomorrow a reality.

We have, as a nation, faced bigger challenges. We have answered the call, and 9/11 was one shining example. We are in better shape now on many fronts as a result of the actions we took in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and those are well known: rebuilding New York City, compensating families, flushing al-Qaida from its base in Afghanistan, leading to the fact that Osama bin Laden is dead.

In the Middle East it is not, as we feared after 9/11, the hateful, myopic, reactive philosophy of bin Laden that took hold and changed their societies. Rather, it is imbued with some decent measure of hope and optimism and courage that created a cascading wave of political, social, and economic aspiration that has transformed this region from Tunisia and Libya to Egypt and Syria, added and abetted by entrepreneurial innovations pioneered here in

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