Gregg Criticizes Bush Administration on National Security
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 – Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., criticized the Bush administration Tuesday for not budgeting more money for homeland security.
The view of domestic security “where security is a stepchild of national defense is clearly the attitude of this administration, and it’s the wrong attitude,” Gregg said in an interview after a subcommittee he chairs heard from Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.
“They’ve made a very robust commitment to our national defense, from the standpoint of military, but they’ve not made an equal commitment to securing the borders or upgrading the Department of Homeland Security as a force for interior defense,” the senator said.
Throughout the hearing by the homeland security subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, Gregg stressed that the security of the borders was an important concern, even for a state like New Hampshire, which shares a small international border.
“Everybody in New Hampshire is part of the country,” Gregg said after the hearing. “Everybody travels by airline, everybody wants to be sure that the people coming to this country are coming here to be participants in a positive way in our society and not harm us.”
During the hearing Gregg called President Bush’s proposed budget for fiscal 2007 a “hollow budget, and I can’t understand it, because I’ve watched the press conferences where the administration has said it’s committed to border security and domestic defense, and yet this budget didn’t really get there.”
Gregg, along with most members of the subcommittee, stressed that the control of American ports was a major concern. “I think there’s a genuine concern, and it’s legitimate, turning these ports over to Arab operations,” Gregg said. The issue deserves significant review, he said, stressing that although Dubai has been friendly and supportive, it also had individuals that were involved in the September 11 attacks.
“I can’t think of anything more significant than national defense, than protecting our borders and making sure that our homeland is secure,” Gregg said. “Yet time and time again, we see budgets being sent up here which dramatically increase the core operations of the Defense Department. and yet the Department of Homeland Security is being starved for funds in crucial areas.”
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the senior Democratic member of the subcommittee, said that of the $860 million that Congress has appropriated.for port security, only $46 million was requested by the president. There’s nothing robust about that; if that’s robust then I’m an 810-pound giant, take me on!”
Byrd echoed many of the criticisms that Gregg had for the administration.
Gregg said that he aggressively asked the administration to add $1.2 billion in a supplemental budget for Coast Guard planes, border patrol cars and training facilities, but that the money was not provided.
“That seemed like a fundamental element of national defense to me, and yet the administration has stonewalled us on that,” Gregg said. The supplemental budget included money for Katrina relief and the war in Iraq, but includes no money for border protection. Gregg said that he was sure both were necessary, “but in the pecking order of national defense, protecting our borders is right up there with both those exercises.”
Gregg also cited computer technology capabilities across the department and the inability to communicate with other agencies as another major flaw of Homeland Security. However, despite the criticisms, Gregg praised both the leadership of Chertoff and the 180,000 workers within the department.
“I respect Secretary Chertoff. I think he’s trying very hard, but the hand he’s dealt is not the hand he wanted, I don’t think,” he said after the hearing.
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