Recent Big Events

RECENT BIG EVENTS -- (House of Representatives - May 05, 2005)

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Mr. McCAUL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman for his leadership on this issue.

As I look at the poster of the purple finger, I can only think back to the State of the Union address where the President stood right here, talked about the brave men and women fighting in Iraq, and many of us stood with our purple fingers in the air in solidarity with the Iraqi people and the voters from Iraq who exercised that great freedom that great day.

I also recall the Norwoods who live in my district, Janet and Bill, who lost their son in Iraq as he fought to save seven Marines held hostage by insurgents, successfully freeing them and giving his own life in the process. I was proud to have authored a bill to name the Pflugerville post office after Byron Norwood, a true hero; and that is what Janet Norwood told me was such a great comfort. This is really what it is all about.

I rise today in support of America's brave troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and all over the world who are protecting the cause of freedom, both here and abroad.

Today, my colleagues and I showed this commitment to these young men and women of the Armed Forces by passing and sending to the President an emergency wartime supplemental aimed at giving our fighting forces the very best in equipment, intelligence, and support.

Included in this bill was $75.9 billion for defense-related spending, including improvements in troop armor, additional force protection and a desperately needed increase in military pay and health benefits so that military families are secured while their loved ones are on duty.

We additionally authorized funding for the FBI and the ATF to actively pursue drug and crime syndicates that are often fronts for laundering money to terrorist organizations.

I was pleased to see also that we included important funding to improve security here at home for such items as an additional 500 border patrol agents, 50 new immigration and customs investigators, 168 new enforcement agents and detention officers, and critically, almost 2,000 detention beds so as to limit the number of illegal border crossings which pose a threat to our national security.

We also successfully included almost all the provisions of the REAL ID Act that passed the House last month in this Chamber, including provisions on political asylum, border infrastructure, and basic Federal standards to State driver's licenses that will make it more difficult to counterfeit identification in this country. Let us not forget, the 19 hijackers on September 11 had over 63 fraudulent and false identification cards on them.

This coming Sunday, May 8, we celebrate the 60th anniversary of our victory in Europe, and that victory came at a great cost, but it was a great accomplishment. We achieved that triumph because Americans banded together to show their support for the brave soldiers, to ensure them that their cause was just.

Today, we fight the same causes of human dignity and freedom; and though it comes at a cost, we must be vigilant and see it through to the end. We are winning in Iraq and Afghanistan; and because of our efforts there, freedom is winning in Ukraine, in Georgia, in Lebanon, and Egypt. However, there are still groups of people in this world who hate us, who think they can defeat us, who look to shake the very foundations of our determination by hitting us here at home.

We have achieved a good beginning for securing our Nation at home, and I want to thank my colleagues and the administration for that effort. I and 44 of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle drafted a letter to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), chairman of the Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, where we asked for full funding for the recommendations the 9/11 Commission made and what was authorized in the intelligence bill for 200 border patrol agents, 800 interior investigators, and 8,000 detention beds authorized in the Intelligence Reform Act.

In the post-9/11 world, this is no longer just an immigration issue. It is one regarding national security. As a former counter terrorism prosecutor in the Justice Department whose jurisdiction included the Mexican border, I experienced it firsthand.

I am pleased that in addition to the 500 new border patrol agents in this bill, we were successful in getting full funding for 2,000 new agents in the Homeland Security Authorization bill which passed last week by that committee, of which I am a proud member; and I hope to see this bill voted on by this Chamber in the next few weeks.

However, we have a long way to go. We need more detention beds to hold people who cross the border illegally. We need more interior investigators; and by securing our borders, we protect ourselves from terrorist threats. I look forward to continuing our work to make sure the terrorists do not get past our borders.

If we look around the world and what is happening on the world stage, dictatorships around the world have begun to fall like dominos, and democracies are rising in their place. We have much to be hopeful and optimistic about, but we have a lot of work left to do. This is an issue that crosses party lines, and I am excited about the cooperation that we have had on the other side of the aisle.

We recently saw another crucial victory in the war on terror, with the capture of the number three al Qaeda operative Abu Farraj al-Libi. By removing this direct threat to our country, we have taken another step towards peace; and because of it, the world is a safer place. I commend Pakistan for their efforts that brought this man to justice and recognize our troops and the soldiers of other nations that are working jointly to eradicate terror from the globe.

When President Bush pledged to fight terrorism in the days following September 11 with a mission and a megaphone on Ground Zero, he sent a clear message to the insurgents. Let today serve as a reminder of that message and of vindication for all those who lost loved ones at the hands of evil.

As long as we are asking the men and women of America's Armed Forces to risk their very lives to defend freedom and protect our Nation, so, too, we must not fail to do our part by supporting them and by funding our border security. Our troops are doing their job and doing it well, but it is time now for us in the Congress to do our part.

I would like to thank the gentleman for his leadership on the issue.

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