N.H. Delegation Relieved to be Done with Homeland Security
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2002–After five months of debate on a bill to create a cabinet-level department of homeland security, members of the New Hampshire delegation said Tuesday they will be glad to have the issue behind them.
The Senate was expected to approve the House version of the bill late Tuesday or on Wednesday, after a Democratic amendment to remove seven provisions they charged favored special interests failed Tuesday afternoon by a mostly party-line vote of 52-47.
“I think this is a strong piece of legislation and an important piece of legislation . . .to deal with the national security threat of global terrorism,” said Sen.-elect John Sununu, who voted for the House version last week.
“Times have changed dramatically,” Sununu added, “and we need to restructure government to plan for and respond to terrorist threats.”
Rep. Charlie Bass, who also voted last week for the bill, weighed in with his support. “A single Department of Homeland Security will help reduce duplication, end confusion about responsibilities and provide focus, direction and flexibility to help protect Americans,” he said in a statement.
Sens. Judd Gregg and Bob Smith also praised the bill’s passage, with each of them touting an amendment he introduced that will be included in the final bill.
Gregg successfully had the Office of Domestic Preparedness, which gives grants for counter-terrorist training and equipment to state and local jurisdictions, moved from the Justice Department to the new department.
The move “ensures that our first responders – the men and women who put their lives on the line every day in their hometowns and across the state – receive the attention and assistance they need to carry out their duties,” Gregg said in a written statement.
Smith’s amendment will allow pilots to carry guns on their flights in an effort to protect themselves in an event of an attempted plane hijacking.
“He is very pleased that all his hard work in the last year for arming pilots is going to pass,” said Erin Witcher, Smith’s spokeswoman.
Neither Smith’s nor Gregg’s office would comment on the Democrats’ opposition to the provisions that were added in the eleventh hour in the House.
Some of the more contentious provisions included liability protections for makers of airport screening equipment and the overturning of a ban that prevents companies that set up offshore tax havens from obtaining government contracts through the new department.
Sununu, however, said the additions should not stop the passage of the final bill. “I’m sure that there are people who want to make political hay. . . . I think that this bill is more important than any one provision.”
Sally Tibbets, Bass’s spokeswoman, while saying that she had not talked to the congressman specifically about the added provisions, said that “certainly you never get everything you want. Compromise is part of the legislative process, and the Republican House put forth the best bill they could.”
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
