I received this email from Dianne Feinstein when I wrote to express my disappointment and dismay that she voted for the HSA. By the way, if you haven't read it, try to (yes, it's masochistic) and tell me what you think, especially the very vague portion on information security (fuck, the entire HSA is vague).
Read the penultimate paragraph and/or read sulli's journal about his dealings with Ms. Feinstein. There's got to be a better Democratic candidate. It was most likely her nose (or Lieberman's) they found up Bush's ass during his colonoscopy.
Dear Ms. Claudia:
Thank you for writing to me about the Department of
Homeland Security. I appreciate receiving your letter and I
welcome the opportunity to respond.
On November 25, 2002, President Bush signed into law
H.R. 5005, the Homeland Security Act of 2002. This legislation
represents the largest restructuring of the federal government in
over fifty years and is among the most important bills I have
considered in my ten years in the Senate.
The Homeland Security Act would create one of the biggest
departments in the U.S. government, combining some 22 federal
agencies with about 200,000 employees. The new department will
have four major divisions: border transportation and security,
emergency preparedness and response, science and technology, and
information analysis and infrastructure protection
I voted for this legislation because our current terrorism
policy is terribly disjointed and fragmented. Currently, homeland
security functions are scattered among more than 100 different
government agencies. These agencies have many overlapping (and
in some cases duplicative) activities, programs, and missions.
Moreover, they often fail to communicate and share information,
making it hard to for the government to "connect the dots" to
prevent a terrorist attack. Now, for the first time in our history,
this nation will have one federal agency charged with the primary
mission of preventing terrorist attacks within the United States,
reducing the vulnerability of the U.S. to terrorism at home, and
minimizing damage and assisting in the recovery from any attacks
that may occur.
In addition to helping consolidate and coordinate our anti-
terrorism policy, the Homeland Security Act includes versions of
two bills I introduced separately. First, the Homeland Security Act
includes language I authored to move responsibility for
unaccompanied alien children from the Immigration and
Naturalization Service to the Department of Health and Human
Services, and to require the Director of the Office of Refugee
Resettlement to develop a plan to ensure that unaccompanied
children can gain access to legal counsel. Second, the Homeland
Security Act includes a bill I authored to increase state and local
access to federally collected homeland security information and
intelligence.
Unfortunately, the final version of the Homeland Security
Act contained a number of provisions giving special treatment to
pharmaceutical companies, airline and rail companies, offshore tax
evaders, and companies engaging in grossly negligent conduct.
Many of these provisions were added at the last minute and had
nothing to do with protecting our nation from terrorism. Shortly
before passage of the Homeland Security Act, I supported an
amendment to strip the special-interest provisions from the bill.
This amendment was defeated 52 to 47. However, I am working to
seek Senate reconsideration of these provisions early in the 108th
Congress.
Again, thank you for writing. If you should have any more
questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact my
Washington, D.C. office at (202)224-3841.