Department of Homeland Security Funding

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I come to the floor to join my
colleagues to call for an end to any political gamesmanship being
played over this bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. I
thank Senators Shaheen and Mikulski for their leadership on this issue.
They have introduced legislation I am proud to cosponsor and that
provides the critical resources the Department of Homeland Security
needs today and for the remainder of 2015.

The issue of funding the Department of Homeland Security has become
particularly important to my State. It is important to every State. New
Hampshire cares a lot about the Coast Guard and many of the other
agencies involved in security.

In Minnesota we have actually had active recruiting, a first from al-
Shabaab that recruited young men in the State of Minnesota--and
particularly in the Twin Cities--to go to Somalia and to fight,
including becoming suicide bombers. We actually had 18 Federal
indictments that came out of that. Half of those people have already
been convicted because of the fact our community--our Somali
community--has been able to work with the law enforcement positively.
We have been able to get the information to prosecute those cases.

Then we go to Syria, something our Presiding Officer knows a lot
about and is an expert on. The first American who was killed fighting
on the side of the terrorists was from Minnesota. There is active
recruiting that has been going on there. I have seen the ads of some of
the recruiting from the FBI that has been going on there. In fact, we
had an indictment of people involved in going to fight for ISIS. So
this is real for us. This isn't just something that is thousands of
miles away. It is happening in our communities.

Just last fall a young man from the Twin Cities area was arrested by
the FBI at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as he was
trying fly to Turkey. The next day the young man's partner was able to
board a flight for Turkey and is thought to be fighting with ISIS.

These are real people, real terrorists. I think we all know when it
comes to Homeland Security it is not just our national security that is
at stake, it is also our economy. Our border with Canada stretches over
5,500 miles, the longest in the world. Over 400,000 people and nearly
$2 billion in goods and services cross our borders every day.

In Minnesota we understand the economic significance of cross-border
commerce. Canada is our State's top international trading partner with
over $19 billion in total business across the border. Think of that--
$19 billion. Over 1 million Canadians visit Minnesota every year--that
is a lot of Canadians--contributing $265 million to our local economy.
A lot of them visit the Mall of America in Bloomington. Many of them go
fishing up north. That relationship relies on a seamless United States-
Canadian border with U.S. Customs and Border Protection keeping that
border secure and efficiently screening all cross-border traffic.

We have made important strides in recent years with the trusted
travel programs to make our northern border more secure while
encouraging the cross-border tourism and commerce that is the lifeblood
of so many Northern States, including Minnesota and New Hampshire.
Withholding critical funding from DHS could threaten this progress,
leading to a less secure border and also hindering economic
opportunity. Withholding critical funding risks the safety of our
people, the strength of our economy, and even our relationships abroad.

At a time when other countries around the world are stepping up their
security, we can't be standing it down. Even a cursory look at world
headlines shows the threats the United States and our allies face--from
the terrorist attacks in Paris and Sydney to cyber attacks by North
Korea. We need to be stepping up our security.

That is why it is so important we turn immediately to this bill to
fund the Department of Homeland Security, a bill we can all agree on.
The funding bill introduced by Senator Shaheen and Senator Mikulski and
that I am proud to cosponsor does just that. It would provide funding
for security while keeping crossings open for business. It would
support 23,775 Customs and Border Protection officers working at our
country's 329 ports of entry. It would ensure that we keep 21,370
Border Patrol agents at work keeping our country safe. It funds cyber
security initiatives that protect our critical infrastructure and
allows us to track down and punish hackers who are responsible for
cyber crimes.

It provides over $1 billion for security-related grants to States--we
are talking about firefighters and first responders--and localities to
help ensure they are prepared to handle both manmade and natural
disasters. No one knows this better than our State when we had a bridge
fall down in the middle of a summer day on August 1 in Minneapolis, MN.
An 8-lane highway right in the middle of the Mississippi River, 13
people died, dozens of people injured, dozens of cars submerged in the
water after dropping 111 feet. No one knows this better than our State
after we had the floods we shared with North Dakota across the Red
River, floods that nearly swept away homes and resulted in a lot of
economic loss. That happened in our State. No one knows better than our
State, where we have had tornadoes similar to so many places in the
Midwest, sweep across the prairies, taking everything in their path.
That is when you know what FEMA is all about. That is when you know
what Homeland Security is all about. That is why we must continue to fund this important Agency.

It is my hope we can come together to pass the Shaheen-Mikulski
Homeland Security appropriations bill. We should never play politics
when it comes to protecting our homeland. That is why former Homeland
Security Secretaries from the George W. Bush and Obama administrations
have come together--Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff and Janet Napolitano--
and all agree on the need to pass a clean bill. Anyone who is watching
C-SPAN and says, What is she talking about--a clean bill? Did it go
through the laundry machine? This is a bill that focuses on what it is
supposed to focus on, which is funding Homeland Security. It doesn't
have other provisions in it that are better debated on other bills,
that are comprehensive and focus on these issues. This bill should not
have those kinds of things on it. This bill is about Homeland Security,
and we shouldn't be shutting down our security over political fights.

As Senators, chief among our responsibilities is to do everything we
can do to keep Americans safe. As a Senator from Minnesota, no job is
more important to me than keeping our State and our country safe. I was
a prosecutor for 8 years. I know how much this means to people. I
deeply respect the work of the Department of Homeland Security and what
they do every single day to protect us. Those workers deserve the best.
The people of America deserve the best. That is why we have to pass
this bill.

I urge my colleagues to pass the Shaheen-Mikulski bill without delay.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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