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“TECHNICAL CORRECTION IN ENROLLMENT OF H.R. 4200” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S10954-S10957 on Oct. 9, 2004.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TECHNICAL CORRECTION IN ENROLLMENT OF H.R. 4200
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I believe this has been cleared on both sides.
I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H. Con. Res. 514, which is at the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the concurrent resolution by title.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 514) directing the Clerk of the House of Representatives to make a technical correction in the enrollment of the bill H.R. 4200.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the concurrent resolution.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the concurrent resolution be printed in the Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 514) was agreed to.
Mr. WARNER. I thank the distinguished Presiding Officer.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The distinguished Senator from Alaska, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, is recognized.
Mr. STEVENS. I thank the Chair.
The House passed the military construction appropriations bill as well as the homeland security bill. No one voted against the bills. The first one was 374-0 and the second was 368-0.
Military construction contains $2.8 billion for the drought and $11.6 billion for disasters which includes the hurricanes. This bill affects all our States with farms that are suffering from the drought and it helps states like Florida and Alabama that were in the path of the hurricanes. FEMA will likely run out of money tonight, Saturday, October 9.
On October 1 FEMA had $836 million which included a $500 million carryover from FY 2004 and a $336 million apportionment under the continuing resolution. That means they get 51 days worth of cash since the CR takes us through November 20. But FEMA tells me that they burn through this money at approximately $65 million to $79 million a day. The balance in the disaster, fund yesterday, Friday, October 8, was only $150 million. The fund runs dry tonight.
It is true they can re-apportion under the CR, which means they can transfer funds from other areas but it will have to be taken from places like our Federal air marshals, air cargo inspections, port security, and more.
On homeland, many believe we will be attacked before the election. There is a continuing resolution in affect until November 20 but getting this bill increases much of the effort we are making to protect the United States.
It also has new programs that cannot be started until we pass this bill. Some of the program I refer to are radiations detection, aviation security technology, border surveillance, additional detention and removal programs. Getting more screeners at airports is on hold. All first responder grant allocations would be put on hold.
The Coast Guard will not be able to re-engine the HH-65 helicopter for at least 6 months, causing the Coast Guard to continue to experience alarming rates of engine failures. At current funding levels, there are insufficient funds to support the Coast Guard's increased force presence in Iraq port security units, patrol boats, and security forces on oil rigs.
Cargo screening will remain only at current levels--we will forgo a tripling of cargo screening on passenger aircraft. Research and development of new technologies for cargo security will be delayed.
TSA will not hire replacement screeners to fill vacancies at airports, causing longer lines at airports, particularly around the holiday period. TSA will delay airport modifications to install explosive detection devices to screen for explosives in carry-on baggage as recommended by the 9/11 Commission.
The department will not be able to hire additional Federal air marshals, FAMs and, in fact, may have to lay off FAMs that they have on staff, up to 500.
This bill includes significant increases in the intelligence capabilities of the department. A continuing resolution will prevent that expansion from taking place leaving the nation at risk.
Under a continuing resolution the Transportation Security Administration has very little funding for rail and transit security. All of the additional funding available for inspectors, canine teams, research and other activities is in the fiscal year 2005 appropriation. None of the additional funding for letters of intent for airport security modifications will be available.
Seven hundred and ninety-two new Coast Guard personnel will not be hired to enforce maritime security plans.
It prevents interoperable communications and personal protective equipment from reaching rural and smaller communities.
Fire departments will remain critically understaffed without the implementation of the SAFER Act.
The biowatch program will not be expanded in major urban areas, affecting our ability to detect the release of biological agents in the air.
It stops the procurement of 250 additional radiation detection/
inspection systems.
It delays procurement of border surveillance systems to monitor and defend U.S. borders.
It delays Container Security Initiative, CSI needed to stay on schedule to add up 22 more ports to existing 25.
It delays establishment of fugitive operation teams and hinders immigration enforcement--limiting detention and arrest operations of criminal alien fugitives and hindering our ability to keep jailed aliens from being released into our communities.
It delays staffing up for overseas operations to ensure no visas are granted to foreign visitors who pose a security risk.
It delays adding 750 beds to hold alien detainees, allowing 5,000 deportable aliens to stay in our communities.
It delays support to reduce the backlog in immigration prosecutions.
Delaying the bill delay this Nation's security. Delaying the bill delays help to those that are suffering from the after-affects of numerous hurricanes. Delaying the bill will delay much needed drought assistance.
Mr. President, I am here because the Military Construction appropriations bill, as well as Homeland Security appropriations bill, has passed the House. Both of them have passed the House. I know we are not supposed to talk about the vote over there, particularly about how many people voted. But I think we can say consistent with the rules that each one of these bills was passed unanimously with not one single opponent. Why? Because the Military Construction bill contains $2.8 billion to the drought program and $11.6 billion for the disasters, particularly those relating to the hurricanes in the Florida area.
This bill will affect all of the States that have farms that are suffering from drought. It certainly helps the Florida area and Alabama--particularly in the path of those hurricanes.
But the reason I have come to the floor now to talk to the Senate is I was reliably informed this afternoon that FEMA runs out of money tonight.
I want to say that again. I hope Senators will listen. FEMA runs out of money tonight. There will be no more payments made in Florida or Alabama. I am told people down there are living in tents. The temperature is rising. They are being given buckets of ice to try to keep cool. They have patients being moved from medical facilities. They are in temporary quarters.
This is probably the worst series of storms in the history of this country.
On October 1, FEMA had $836 million. That included a $500 million carryover from 2004, and they were allocated $336 million under the continuing resolution we passed that expires November 20.
As of tonight, that money is gone. This really is an emergency now.
We have been delayed for one reason or another as we tried to get these bills passed. There were riders offered on the bill in both Houses. We tried to work those out in conference. I know there are some people who are disturbed about some of the riders that weren't included. These were legislative riders that did not pertain to the bills themselves, and there are some that were accepted.
But we have to get this bill done and to the President as quickly as possible.
This covers everything you can think about in terms of the Homeland Security bill--Federal air marshals, air cargo inspections, port security.
As I said, we have a continuing resolution in effect until November 20. As far as the FEMA money, it is gone.
I think we have an absolute obligation to these people who are providing the security for this country to see to it that they get their money on time.
We were unable to get these bills done by the end of the fiscal year, which was September 30, because we had no budget resolution.
We have been working against all sorts of impediments in the appropriations process this year.
We have a number of things in this bill that are absolutely necessary.
We have funds for the Coast Guard, for instance. Many people don't realize the Coast Guard has a presence in Iraq. They have port security units and patrol boats. They have security forces near the oil rigs over there. They are part of our forces over there. They still also have this enormous problem in the United States. They need to increase money.
The continuing resolution continues all of these agencies at the level of money approved by Congress in 2003 for the 2004 period. This is the first quarter of 2005.
The money is for cargo screening. That level of demand has increased. We forego a tripling of cargo screening on passenger aircraft by virtue of the bill that was passed.
We have enormous demands now by the Transportation Security Agency to fill vacancies in airports. There will be longer lines at airports if we don't get this money out to them.
The Department also has the Federal air marshals. I am told that they may have to lay off up to 500 Federal air marshals because they are traveling under that continuing resolution. Their moneys are allocated on the basis of what we thought was necessary in the fall of 2003. This is money for 2005. It must start now.
Again, I don't understand why we can't vote tonight. The House took up these bills and passed them within 2 hours. Each one passed the House within 2 hours because they recognized the need for this money.
Now I am told we may not vote until Monday or Tuesday on these bills. I am sort of aggravated. These bills are necessary.
I would like to identify the people who are objecting to passage of these bills tonight. I hope they come to the floor and defend themselves.
I sat in the Chair and presided over the Senate this morning, and I heard the distinguished minority leader say we cannot leave until these bills pass. We cannot go into recess and go back for the election process until these bills are passed. That should be the bipartisan position of this Senate.
Forget these minute details about antagonism because some person's ego has been bruised because we have not done exactly what they want on these bills. We all have to be bigger than that.
It is time to pass these bills. These delays on this bill affect national security. There is no question that homeland security is the second line of defense now. Our first line of defense is protecting our perimeter. But we have national security as No. 1. We spent weeks on the Homeland Security bill. Now we are refusing to provide the money which we came to total agreement on which they need for next year. It is being delayed. I don't understand that at all.
I particularly don't understand why any Member in the Senate is opposing these bills when it was unanimously approved. Not one voice was raised against these bills in the other House. We represent the same constituents. On what basis does anyone want to oppose these bills, either for the hurricane, military construction, or Homeland Security? I am standing ready. Anyone who wants to debate them, I will be here all night. I want these bills passed. They have to pass. There is no reason why they should not pass.
I am pleased to explain any portion of these bills to any Member tonight, but I don't know why we can't come here and vote for these bills. Someone is objecting somewhere and I would like to find out who it is because I think the whole world--I hope someone is watching, anyway--will ask why. Why can't we do what the House did and approve the bills after such hard work we put in? As I said, it has been totally bipartisan. Not one word in the House from either party was raised against these bills.
I will be back.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The distinguished Senator from Utah.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I agree with the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee. It is a catastrophic failure not to take care of these problems. I salute the chairman for making the statement he made and for the leadership he has provided in this Senate. We all know what a feisty, wonderful man he is. I hope we can get this resolved. I hope whoever has these objections will identify himself or herself and why they are making the objections.
I listened to the statement of the Senator from Massachusetts this afternoon, and to hear him you would think we are living in the most calamitous times in the history of the world, that our country is falling apart, that we are not employing people, that people are getting poorer, and nobody has a chance in our society anymore, all because George W. Bush became President of the United States. It is amazing to me how many comments are made by people who are in the business of politicizing these matters rather than talking sensibly about them.
Think about it, we lost over a million jobs shortly after September 11. Lost them. September 11 was the reason. That was no fault of President Bush. That was the fault of the people who attacked our country. Over 1.9 million jobs have been created since August of 2003. We now have the lowest unemployment rate in the last 4 or 5 years, 5.4 percent. When I was chairman of the Labor Committee, if you could get unemployment below 6 percent, if you got it to 5.6 percent, you had full employment. When you count those who cannot work, those who don't need to work, and those who won't work, you basically had full employment. 5.4 percent is incredibly low by historical standards.
I might add that the Household Employment Survey shows 2.2 million jobs have been created, many more jobs than shown in the Payroll Survey. This is because the Household Survey counts the self-employed and the Payroll Survey does not. We have the highest rate of home ownership in history, which has been developed during this administration. I can go on and on. The fact of the matter is we can play politics with about everything in this overheated political campaign.
Since September 11, the employment rate peaked at 6.3 percent last year and has come down to 5.4 percent. The current 5.4 percent rate is well below the average rates of the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s. Some have said the job growth has failed to keep up with population growth. That is simply not true. Since last June, total employment has increased by 2.2 million. The labor force has increased by 949,000. Unemployment has fallen by 1.2 million people.
In addition, we hear all the time how people are not making a good living. Let's be honest. In some respects we have priced ourselves out of the marketplace with some of the heavy-duty industries, and we know there are many reasons why that happens, and that goods and services are being produced elsewhere at a lower cost, and this benefits the consumers of America. The consumers of America then have more money and they will be spending more so we can create other businesses that will compete.
The fact of the matter is, I have listened to these complaints about the labor overtime regulations that the Secretary of Labor worked on. I happened to have chatted with her during that process and she was doing an absolutely wonderful job of trying to make sure we got more people eligible to receive overtime pay than ever before. But to listen to some on the other side, you would think the whole world was coming to an end and the fact is she has come up with very good regulations.
We could talk about these things all day, and I guess anyone can distort any statistical analysis. There is a lot of distortion that goes on in this Senate from time to time in these matters. Of course, we are in a heated Presidential election campaign and I have to say I make a certain allowance for that, but I hope the folks out there watching make an allowance for that as well, because we have a lot of heated rhetoric in the Senate that sometimes does not make sense.
I intend to speak about three different things today and I ask unanimous consent my respective remarks be placed in the appropriate context.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Dole). Without objection, it is so ordered.
Justice for All Act
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I come to the Senate to discuss H.R. 5107, the Justice For All Act that the Senate adopted this morning. After days, months, and now years of hard-fought negotiations, we finally reached an agreement on one of the most significant bills that has come out of the 108th Congress.
Just days ago, the House passed H.R. 5107 by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 393-14. I especially commend my friends and colleagues, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Sensenbrenner from Wisconsin and Congressman Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts, for their leadership on this important bill. Nor could we have accomplished this matter without the cooperation and leadership of my friend from Vermont, Senator Patrick Leahy. As we know, the Senate adopted this bill this morning and we are pleased to send it to the President for his signature.
Our bill, the Justice for All Act, contains President Bush's DNA initiative. It also contains Senator Leahy's Innocence Protection Act which has been modified by almost everyone on the committee, and Senators Kyl and Feinstein's victims' rights legislation. This is a groundbreaking crime bill, one of the most important in history, that will allow us to unleash the power of evidentiary DNA and help provide law enforcement the ability to find and punish the guilty, yet give us the comfort of more certainty in criminal prosecution.
Passage of the bill is extremely important to people such as Debbie Smith and Kirk Bloodsworth after whom individual parts of the bill are named. March 3, 1989, Debbie Smith--who I know very well--was the victim of a brutal rape in Williamsburg, Virginia. It took 6 long years to finally analyze Debbie Smith's rape kit. Debbie Smith's rapist was ultimately caught because of this, but it took far too long to catch him.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a woman is raped every 6 minutes in this country and many rapists commit this crime 8 to 10 times before they are caught, which means that at any given moment there are literally millions of rape survivors waiting to hear that their attacker has been apprehended.
Debbie Smith waited 6 agonizing years for justice to be served. It was not just waiting for justice to be served; it was agonizing because she was never sure when she walked out of her house or even within her house whether this brutal rapist would return. It was something that affected her all of those years. Thankfully, through the use of DNA evidence, this awful person was apprehended and slammed in jail, where he deserves to be.
Some women are not that fortunate. The Justice Department reports there are approximately 150,000 to 500,000 rape kits nationwide that have yet to be analyzed because law enforcement officials are short on both the funds and the skilled personnel necessary to process these rape kits and match the evidence collected to existing DNA samples of known criminals. Imagine how many rapists we would have caught by now had those up to 500,000 rape kits been analyzed. By the way, some of those are 20 years old. I have been fighting for this bill for years. It is so difficult to get it through, but today is the day it has gone through the Senate and has passed the House.
This bill makes a giant leap in the rape kit backlog and specifies when and how DNA tests should and should not be used. The President has often indicated his commitment to unlocking the power of DNA to solve these crimes. Today the Senate has joined the House in stepping up to follow through with the President's plan.
It cannot be said any better than in Debbie Smith's own words:
Each one of these stalled cases represents women's lives. Many women are paralyzed after an attack because their rapist is still out there, and you never know if he's going to come back.
Now, this bill will not take away the pain and anguish these victims have endured. It can, however, allow for health care professionals, law enforcement, and other first responders to assist victims by using the evidentiary power of DNA to apprehend and prosecute those responsible for these horrible crimes.
This bill was too important to be delayed any longer. As so many of my colleagues, I am well aware of the incomparable power of DNA testing to solve crimes, particularly sexual assault. This fact is reflected in newspaper headlines spread across the country each week. During the week of August 16 alone, the media reported that DNA evidence pinpointed a suspect in three rapes in Miami, FL, caused a man to be charged in a 20-year-old Missouri rape case, and proved critical in convicting a New York man accused of committing nine rapes over the course of a decade.
That is what DNA can do. If we had all these rape cases analyzed, we would be catching these rapists right and left and we would be protecting women all over this country from this type of violent, criminal activity in many cases. So I want to stand here and thank Debbie Smith from the bottom of my heart for her constant efforts to help us pass this bill. I have known her for a long time. We have flown together. She has appeared at our hearings. She is leading the fight throughout America, along with a number of other very courageous women. This has to be a very important day for her.
When this bill is finally signed into law by our President, who will sign it into law, it is going to be a big day for the Debbie Smiths of this world and, I might add, every woman in this world who is the potential target of these vicious rapists.
Also contained in this bill are provisions that will give us assurance that those whom we arrest and convict are indeed those who have committed the crime. Kirk Bloodsworth, a former marine with no criminal background whatsoever, was arrested in 1984 for the brutal rape and murder of 9-year-old Dawn Hamilton on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Kirk Bloodsworth maintained his innocence but was convicted and sentenced to death. After 9 years in prison, two of them on death row, Kirk Bloodsworth, an innocent man, was exonerated by post-conviction DNA testing. Last year, prosecutors matched the DNA evidence in the case to another man, who subsequently pleaded guilty to the crime, for which he was sentenced to death.
This is the power of DNA when it is used and analyzed properly. I want to stand here and thank Kirk Bloodsworth from the bottom of my heart for his efforts to improve and pass this bill. The bill will help to protect unintentional victims of the criminal justice system.
I think we all owe a debt of gratitude to Kirk Bloodsworth. One reason I have stayed around here all day, although there are no more votes, is to be able to stand on this floor and personally pay tribute to Debbie Smith and Kirk Bloodsworth. They deserve it. They have been with us throughout this process, and I have nothing but respect for both of them.
Moreover, this bill includes Senator Kyl's and Senator Feinstein's critical Crime Victims Act that ensures victims rights are protected in criminal prosecutions. This bill is truly justice for all.
It is an important bill, and they fought for this for years and years, and we helped them to get it out of committee. I am so grateful it was matched with the DNA bill, and we now have these two bills brought together in one bill that will do a great deal of good for our society.
Finally, let me say I am grateful for the hard work and determination of so many people to get such a vital bill passed.
I thank my cosponsors of this bill. First, let me thank my good friend from Vermont, Senator Leahy, for his commitment and willingness to set aside politics in a very political year and work with me to get such a critical bill passed.
I also want to recognize and specifically thank Senator Biden, Senator Specter, Senator Feinstein, and Senator DeWine for their calming voices of wisdom throughout the negotiations, our difficult committee markup, and in the final preparations to achieve a properly balanced bill. Without their unwavering support and counsel, this bill would not have occurred.
I also thank the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Sensenbrenner, and Representative Delahunt for their dogged determination on the House side in leading the House in passing this bill through the House on two occasions by overwhelming majorities.
I have worked side by side with Chairman Sensenbrenner on many occasions. He is a true friend and he is a man of his word. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to work closely with Congressman Delahunt on this measure, and I can tell you, he is a man of honor and wisdom. I have enjoyed working with him. I will look forward to working with both of them again in the future.
I also want to make special mention that without the thorough consideration of this bill by Senators Kyl, Sessions, and Cornyn, we would not be here today. Nearly two dozen changes were addressed and implemented at the insisting of these fine Senators, and this bill is a better bill because of it. And I have to admit, they have helped to improve the bill.
At times the process through the committee was a bit tension filled, but I commend Senators Kyl, Sessions, and Cornyn for working to improve and refine this legislation. Some have unfairly criticized their efforts, but that is only because these critics apparently do not understand the committee process. I commend these colleagues and all of my colleagues for giving this bill the scrutiny it deserves.
Now, let me say that many have worked to make this bill a successful effort. We could not get much done around here if we did not have such an intelligent and dedicated staff. I want to thank those on my staff, including Reed O'Conner and Ted Lehman, for their commitment and dedication in getting this bill done. I especially want to single out Brett Tolman, a bright, young assistant U.S. attorney from Salt Lake City who is on assignment to the Judiciary Committee. We are fortunate to have him, and he has made a tremendous difference on this bill. Brett took the initiative for undertaking a lot of the analysis and negotiations that led to the final compromise language.
I am proud of him, and I think everybody else ought to be, too.
I want to thank Senator Leahy's chief counsel Bruce Cohen and his lead counsel on this issue, Julie Katzman. Their efforts helped guide and drive this effort throughout and are greatly appreciated. We are also indebted to chief counsel Neil MacBride, Jon Meyer, and Louisa Terrell from Senator Biden's office. They continuously helped move the ball forward.
I give special thanks to Rob Steinbuch, a senior counsel in Senator DeWine's Judiciary Committee office. Rob and Brett Tolman were key players on our side of the aisle in educating Members and staff about this bill and proposing creative solutions to problems that surfaced.
I also thank Joe Matal, William Smith, and Chip Roy, who ably represented the views of, respectively, Senators Kyl, Sessions, and Cornyn.
On the House side, Phil Kiko, chief counsel for Chairman Sensenbrenner, Jay Apperson, Katy Crooks, and Christine Leonard were instrumental in building the overwhelming support for this bill.
As well, I give special thanks to Matt McGhie and Bill Jensen from legislative counsel. On this type of bill it is critical to get the language exactly right, and they did so time and time again.
The list of contributors could go on and on because so many private and governmental organizations have also provided critical assistance.
Let me also say, while I had to get a little rough with the Justice Department--and I am still not over it--I am, nonetheless, grateful for their help in coming to compromises and getting this bill in acceptable form. I call upon Attorney General Ashcroft to urge the President to sign this good bill, and to do it quickly.
I thank the leadership, Majority Leader Frist and Senator McConnell, as well as Minority Leader Daschle and Senator Reid for giving us floor time to get this done today.
Most of all, I am pleased to send to the President a bill that will make such a difference in the lives of victims of crime, including those wrongly accused or convicted of crimes across this country.
This bill passed 393 to 14 over in the House. We amended it in many ways to make it a far better bill because of the work of all of these people I have been chatting about. I have to say that it passed unanimously by the Senate today. This body sent that version back over to the House, and I am pleased to report that they took it up and passed it so that it may be sent to the President for his signature.
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