Conference Report on H.R. 4567, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2005
CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 4567, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005 -- (House of Representatives - October 09, 2004)
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order at any time to consider a conference report to accompany H.R. 4567; that the conference report be considered as read; and that all points of order against the conference report and against its consideration be waived.
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. SABO. I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, the conference report that is being filed is precisely as it was when we left conference.
Mr. SABO. So, Mr. Speaker, there have been no changes or additions or deletions?
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Correct.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. SABO. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
So let me be explicit. Does that mean that there is no change whatsoever from the decision made in the conference when the conference approved A-76?
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. SABO. I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is correct.
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the previous order of the House, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 4567) making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the conference report to accompany H.R. 4567, and that I may include tabular material.
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, my intention is to be brief, and I hope that the debate today is brief because of the hour and the day of the week and the day of the session.
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to present to the body the second-ever conference report for the Department of Homeland Security. This agreement provides $32 billion for the Department. That is $1.1 billion above the current level and $496 million over the President's request. These amounts exclude the $2 billion supplemental provided in September for Hurricanes Charlie and Francis, as well as the $6.5 billion in supplemental funding formally included in as part of this bill for Ivan and Jeanne. Including these funds, the Department will receive $38.5 billion in fiscal year 2005.
Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not mention my concerns over attempts to add extraneous matters to this bill. I appreciate the desire by some people to attach legislative riders to appropriations bills. After all, appropriations bills are must-do legislation. However, these attempts, and in particular the actions taken by the other body to add extraneous matter, have led to unnecessary delays in the consideration of this bill that funds important homeland security programs.
My colleagues might be interested to know that FEMA is running out of money. Despite the $2 billion given to FEMA just 4 weeks ago, the pot is almost empty, practically drained dry. There is an unprecedented amount of work to be done in the country because of Hurricanes Charlie, Francis, Ivan and Jeanne, and, simply put, without some very creative accounting, FEMA would be out of money today.
I am pleased that the Military Construction conference agreement includes emergency funds to help Florida, especially, recover from the devastation of the recent hurricanes, providing an additional $5.6 billion for those efforts.
Mr. Speaker, in just one year, the Department of Homeland Security has made tremendous progress. More work obviously needs to be done, but the Department, I think, is clearly on the right track, identifying our vulnerabilities, matching them to threats and putting out guidance on ways to protect our homeland. The conference agreement builds upon the successes of the past year and includes initiatives to move us closer to our goals of prevention, preparedness and response.
In the interests of time, Mr. Speaker, I would like to highlight just a few of the items included in the proposed agreement, items I know are of interest to all of the Members.
First, there is $4 billion in the bill for our first responders. The agreement strikes a balance between funding high-risk communities and providing support for States and localities to achieve and maintain minimum levels of preparedness.
The bill includes $1.1 billion for the basic formula grants and $1.2 billion to improve security in our urban and most populated areas.
There is $9.8 billion in the bill for border protection and related activities, including $145 million for new inspection and detection technologies. There is $340 million for the U.S. Visit Program, and there is $1.1 billion for detention and removal operations on our borders. The conferees provide $26.5 million in new funding to provide 750 additional beds for detainees, permit removal of 5,000 additional deportable aliens, and reduce the risk that such aliens will be released into our communities while they await deportation.
This funding will also advance our efforts to create smart borders that keep terrorists out without stemming the flow of free commerce or legitimate travel into and from the country.
Thirdly, the conference agreement supports security for all modes of transportation, including $5.1 billion for the Transportation Security Administration, with $673 million for our Federal air marshals program. There is $118 million in the bill for air cargo screening, which we hear so much about. This money will support the hiring of 100 new air cargo inspectors, the development of new cargo screening technology and the expansion of canine enforcement teams. The bill also requires TSA to triple the number of cargo inspections on passenger aircraft.
Let me repeat that, Mr. Speaker, in case someone may have questioned what I said. This bill requires the Transportation Security Administration to triple the number of cargo inspections on passenger planes.
The agreement also funds several initiatives for rail security, including $150 million for grants to high threat rail systems, hiring and deploying rail security inspectors and canine teams to screen for explosives and furthering intelligence-related activities.
Also, Mr. Speaker, there is $1.1 billion for science and technology, targeting the research and development of technologies to detect biohazards and nuclear detection technology for cargo. We also continue to fully fund R&D for anti-missile devices aimed at commercial aircraft.
Finally, there is $894 million for the information analysis and infrastructure protection. That is a mouthful, but it is to complete an inventory of critical infrastructure in the country, enhance current communications between Federal, State and local homeland security personnel, interoperability, if you will, and to assist local communities as they put protective measures in place to protect our hometowns.
Mr. Speaker, the important work of the Department of Homeland Security cannot be emphasized enough. I believe this conference agreement builds on the progress of the past year and substantially furthers the protection of our homeland. I urge my colleagues to support it.
Mr. Speaker, the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee will soon bid farewell to our Congressional Fellow, Lt. Ben Nicholson, who has served the Committee on Appropriations over the past three years in two different Subcommittees.
Lt. Ben Nicholson has been detailed to the Committee from the United States Coast Guard since 2001. He served initially with the Transportation Subcommittee; spent a year helping establish the new Transportation-Treasury Subcommittee; and this year came to work with the Homeland Security Subcommittee. Mr. Speaker, the Appropriations Committee had never had a detailee from the Coast Guard. Lt. Ben Nicholson was a pathbreaker for the service in that role, and he performed admirably. He did everything we asked of him, with pinpoint accuracy and usually ahead of time. I would also add that he served the Committee during interesting times, perhaps more interesting than he imagined when he accepted the job. Eight months after he began, the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred. Immediately after that, the anthrax attacks occurred. He assisted the Committee in overseeing the establishment of the Transportation Security Administration, including key analysis, which demonstrated the overstaffing of screening personnel in smaller airports. He made sure that shipbuilding loans for the Maritime Administration were contingent upon management improvements in the contracting and oversight process. And he properly evaluated, and helped us provide for, critical facility repairs at MARAD's James River Reserve Fleet, which was devastated by Hurricane Isabel last year. Ben's maritime experience and background were simply invaluable to our Committee.
On the Homeland Subcommittee, we have benefited from the experience Lt. Nicholson gained as a Coast Guard Officer, in particular his insights into the operations of a complex military organization that is combined with a large domestic agency. He has superb analytical skills that have been critical in our review of a $32 billion budget request and in developing complex spreadsheets that synthesize funding issues into easily understood documents we have used in hearings, closed briefings, in Full Committee, and on the floor. His infectious energy, his focus, and superb analytic and technical skills have also helped keep the momentum for this bill moving forward. His high standards of professionalism and thoroughness are beyond reproach, and his contributions have been highly valued.
Through all of this, Ben maintained the decorum and professionalism that we have all come to expect from our military officer corps, and he has represented the Coast Guard with the highest integrity and competence. Lt. Nicholson has served me, this Subcommittee, the Transportation-Treasury Subcommittee, and the House well. We are sorry to see him leave, and will miss him as our colleague-but are glad to count him as a friend. Each of us on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee wish Ben all the best as he moves forward in his career, where we anticipate seeing great things of him in the coming years.
I am grateful for his contributions.
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
We would not be here at this point in time without the gentleman whom I yield to next. This full chairman of our committee has been marvelous in this bill in helping us through. I believe this is the last of the appropriations bills that this full committee chairman will, in effect, manage before this body; and I know that he is enormously pleased with the passage, or soon to be passed, I am sure, of the MILCON bill that includes aid for his home State.
Mr. Speaker, we all owe a great debt of gratitude to this great public servant who has put up with all sorts of devilishness during the development of this bill, among others.
So I yield such time as he may consume to the honorable gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations.
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young).
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Sweeney) who is a very valuable member of our subcommittee.
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Latham), a very hard-working member of our subcommittee.
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot close this debate without thanking some people. My colleague on the other side of the aisle has been marvelous to work with. He is demanding about the facts, but he is agreeable in working with us on the bill. I want to thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Sabo) especially for his great work on this subcommittee, as he does in other parts of the Congress.
Mr. Speaker, the Speaker of this House was very, very instrumental as late as the early hours of this morning in trying to remove snags that might prevent this bill from being placed on the floor, and I have to publicly compliment the Speaker and thank him for taking the personal interest that he did in helping us to move the passage of the bill to the floor. I can say the same for the majority leader.
We had a tough snag that the other body had placed in the way of this bill's coming to the floor, and as late as 2 o'clock this morning, the Speaker of the House and your majority leader, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) were up there working in their offices on the telephones to make this day possible. I have to publicly compliment them on doing a great job to help us.
Mr. Speaker, finally, let me say thanks to this great staff. We would not be here without them. They do the hard work. They are up all night doing the tedious work. My chief of staff, Michelle Mrdeza, has just been terrific in making this day possible and making the subcommittee work. As did Stephanie Gupta and Jeff Ashford and Tom McLemore and Terry Tyborowski and Kelly Wade, and Brian Dunlop and Ben Nicholson. These last two, Brian from the Secret Service, a fellow with us, and Ben Nicholson, a fellow from the Coast Guard, have been with us all this year and they will be rotating off this assignment now. I want to publicly thank them especially for their service with us on this subcommittee.
I want to thank my chief of staff, Will Smith, and Beverly Pheto of the minority staff, who has been especially helpful. We would not be here without them, Mr. Speaker, and I think we should publicly thank them for the great work they do.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Members for being understanding of the difficulties in putting this bill together. We are trying to fund some 53,000 units of local public safety, as well as all the other myriad of things that go into funding this 22-agency new department in its second year. I want to thank the Members for being understanding and supportive and helpful in making that possible.
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.