Executive Session

EXECUTIVE SESSION -- (Senate - February 15, 2005)

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I also rise to speak in support of the nomination of Michael Chertoff.

Today we vote on one of the most important Cabinet positions in our Government, and that is Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. New York, perhaps more than any other State in the Union, knows the need for a strong defense at home. Therefore, I take this vote very seriously. I have considered carefully Judge Michael Chertoff's background. I have considered his experience, and I met with him personally to express the needs and concerns of the citizens of New York and my own concerns about what we have and have not been doing when it comes to homeland security.

After careful review and after hearing his commitment to work with me and other Members of this body, I intend to vote in favor of Judge Chertoff's nomination for this vital post. It is clear, crystal clear, that Judge Chertoff has the intelligence and the skill to run this behemoth Department. There is no question about that. But what has really been missing from the Government is an advocate for funds and focus in homeland security that will protect New York and the rest of the country. Judge Chertoff assured me he would fight within the administration for resources that have been missing in homeland security.

It is no secret that, while we have given all the money it takes to fight the war on terror overseas, we have shortchanged the domestic war on terror at home. Program after program, which we all admit is necessary to defend us at home, is shortchanged when it comes to funding and focus.

The Department of Homeland Security was run by admirable people, but their constitution was such that when they went into the Oval Office, they didn't make much of a fight for the things that were necessary.

I asked Judge Chertoff about that when I met him. I said: I am sure you are not going to make a public fight, but are you privately, within the confines of the Oval Office, going to demand the funds that this Department needs to make us secure? He told me he would.

There is no doubt Judge Chertoff has been blessed with a brilliant mind, and he has formidable experience as a prosecutor, as Chief of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, and more recently as an appellate judge. He now faces the toughest challenge of his thus far impressive career. He will be called upon to lead and manage a Department of 170,000 employees, forged out of 22 separate Government agencies, still not all working together. That is no small task.

Judge Chertoff will have to be smart, tough, dedicated, and savvy-but a keen mind and a strong work ethic will not be enough. As I have said, what has been missing from homeland security has been funds and focus. A color-coded warning system can have all the colors in the rainbow, but without adequate funding for vital programs and without a laser-like focus, we are not serving the people well. Judge Chertoff assured me he would fight hard for the funds and maintain a strong focus to maintain these programs at the Department if confirmed. If my reading of his character and personality is correct, he will make those fights inside the administration that have been lacking thus far.

Judge Chertoff, of course, will also have to commit himself to working with Members of Congress in a bipartisan way, so together we can best protect the homeland.

Unfortunately, as I said in the past, sometimes this administration has acted with too much secrecy and too often it has failed to consult Congress. Too often it behaved as if it has a monopoly on wisdom. I am optimistic that Judge Chertoff will, as he has assured me, work with us in a bipartisan way.

I have also talked to him about the need for changing the funding formula so funds are not distributed simply as if they were dropped from an airplane, but go to the places of the greatest need.

I have told him it is unconscionable Wyoming gets more on a per-capita basis for homeland security than New York. He has told me that we have a real problem with the funding formula; he knows it has to be changed and he would work to change it.

I have also raised with Judge Chertoff the serious problems of staffing we have at the northern border with Canada. New York, of course, has a 300-mile such border. As of last year, we were short more than 1,400 Customs and Border Protection officers on that border. Judge Chertoff promised to make securing the northern border a priority, should he be confirmed by the Senate.

I also pressed Judge Chertoff on other matters, areas in which the Government should do more to protect the homeland. I discussed with him the creation of an assistant secretary for cybersecurity, something I have raised before, given reports of the mounting attacks on our computer systems. On these and on other matters, Judge Chertoff has shown a willingness to deliberate and be openminded and that means a lot in my book.

In conclusion, the task of the next Secretary will be difficult. The stakes couldn't be higher. Based on his record of achievement and my personal meetings with him, I have high hopes for Judge Chertoff. I hope and pray he lives up to those high hopes. I will vote yes on the nomination of Michael Chertoff as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

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