Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today and encourage my colleagues to support my amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2013.

Particularly, I want to thank Chairman Rogers and our ranking member, Mr. Ruppersberger, for their bipartisan approach on this particular piece of legislation.

My amendment would authorize the Director of National Intelligence to participate in information sharing with the Republic of Mexico and Canada for the purposes of border security and combating drug trafficking and any related crimes.

Nothing in this amendment requires the Director of National Intelligence to share their information, but based on this information, this amendment simply gives the agency the power to do so in the event that the Director sees the real benefit in combating the flow of drugs throughout the United States and our neighbors.

This important amendment will go a long way in making sure that our northern and southern neighbors have all the tools we can offer to stop the violence and trafficking caused by drug cartels. The Republic of Mexico, Canada, and the United States share a deep concern over the threat to our societies by drug trafficking and other criminal organizations operating on both sides of our common borders. The growing operational and financial capabilities of criminal groups that traffic in drugs, arms, persons, as well as transnational criminal activity, pose a clear and present threat to our lives and the well-being of U.S., Canadian, and Mexican citizens.

North America must make it a priority to break the power and impunity of drug and criminal organizations that threaten the health and public safety of their citizens and the stability and security of the region. Both the Canadian and Mexican Governments are profoundly committed to the concerted bilateral strategic and tactical cooperation necessary to combat effectively this criminal activity, particularly the threat it presents to our Nation's youth and the importance of having adequate access to intelligence information.

This amendment will make whatever intelligence gathered by the United States that can be shared, will be shared to stop the flow of illegal drugs. In addition, this amendment will ensure that whatever intelligence gathered by our neighbors can be properly used by our law enforcement to make sure that we stop the drugs.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, I certainly want to say that I do appreciate, again, the work of our ranking member, the chairman. I hope that the chairman is supportive of this amendment, and I certainly want to thank all the committee members.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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