Landrieu Votes Against House Spending Proposal
WASHINGTON – Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., today voted against limiting debate on the House-passed long term continuing resolution for fiscal year 2011, H.R. 1. The procedural vote, which requires 60 votes, failed by a vote of 44-56.
Just before the Senate voted, Sen. Landrieu spoke on the Senate floor about how H.R. 1 puts the U.S. homeland in jeopardy. As chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, Sen. Landrieu critiqued the reckless and short-sighted House plan that slashes port security, cuts border enforcement and threatens the Coast Guard's operational capacity.
Sen. Landrieu said:
“Thank you, Mr. President. I want to follow up on the comments of the Senators from Montana (Sen. Max Baucus) and Maryland (Sen. Barbara Mikulski), who spoke just so eloquently and clearly about the consequences of adopting H.R. 1, which sets spending levels for the next year. In my view, a vote for H.R. 1 would be indeed a reckless vote, because the consequences of such severe cuts in some areas, as outlined particularly by the Senator from Maryland and the Senator from Montana, would be irresponsible.
“And as it relates to my subcommittee, which I wanted to speak about for a moment, and that's the Subcommittee on Homeland Security. It is not an inconsequential area of our responsibility, which is protecting the 350 million-plus Americans that live here in the United States. And to be able to trust that we're doing our jobs well enough to keep them safe every day from rising threat levels from a variety of different sources. That's what our job is on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, and I am going to be voting against H.R. 1, because, in my view, it goes too far and it puts our homeland in jeopardy.
“And let me be clear, in his State of the Union speech, the president stated that al Qaeda and its affiliates plan attacks against our nation. He stressed that extremists are trying to inspire acts of violence by those within our borders. According to the Attorney General, in the last two years, 126 individuals have been indicted for terrorist-related activities, including 50 of our own citizens. The Homeland Security Secretary appeared before my subcommittee last week and said that the threat of terrorist attacks is as high as it's been since 9/11. And what do the Republican leaders just newly minted and elected come to Washington to do? Slash the homeland security budget. I'm not going to do that, and I would urge my colleagues not to do that.
“In view of these threats, we cannot reduce the Homeland Security budget to levels that preceded the Christmas day bombing attempt, the Times Square bombing attempt, the air cargo bombing attempt and the Fort Hood shooting. And that’s before the escalation of violence and drugs along the Mexican border. We had one of our agents gunned down just three weeks ago. What does this budget do that they're recommending? Slashing border security. We literally spilled blood on this floor almost building that fence along the border and adding border security. Now they want to dismantle it? I don't think so. The bill makes deep cuts in state and local grants to train and equip first responders. Do they think it's going to be the F.B.I. agents that are walking around Times Square every day looking for a smoking car? No. It's going to likely be a local New York firefighter or police officer or a citizen walking by noticing something and calling the police. We have very small, really relatively small training grants available. They cut that by over 50%. Is that smart? I don't think so. The House bill cuts border security infrastructure programs when violence in Mexico is at an unprecedented level.
“The House bill will cut Coast Guard acquisitions despite the need to revitalize its aging fleet and when the coast guard mission is to expand as it was not only a year ago on April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon exploded. Who did you call when you went to 911 and said there is a rig on fire? Who did you call? The Coast Guard. How did they get to the rigs? On cutters that we build. The House bill cuts Port Security and transit security in London and Madrid. How many more terrorists have to attack trains before we realize there is a level you cannot go beneath without putting our citizens at risk? And we're perilously close to that level.
“The House bill reduces Transportation Security Administration procurement of explosive detection technologies that T.S.A. needs to respond as we've developed since the Christmas -- you know, the bombing, the attempted bombing at Christmastime. And cyber security, I haven't even spoken about this. It's very difficult -- and some of this is classified information and not something people can grasp as well as they can understand explosives on trains and airplanes, which are, I guess, easier to visualize. These attacks through our internet and through the new interconnecting technologies now that are electric grid and all of our companies depend on need to be secured as well. So, I’m just going to conclude and put the rest of the statement in the record. But, the House bill H.R. 1 cuts port security grants by 66%, transportation security grants by 66%. It cuts FEMA. It cuts the Coast Guard below levels that are safe. Now, Homeland Security is the newest agency. I realize that we have to make cuts and bring our budget into balance. If this were a plan to get to us a balanced budget, Mr. President, I would support it. But it's not. It's just a plan that jeopardizes our homeland security and doesn't do very much at all to close that deficit gap. When a real plan is presented, I’ll vote for it. Until then I’m voting ‘no.’ Thank you.”
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