Protecting Our Homeland

Statement

After the scare on Christmas Day with the attempted terrorist attack on board an American airplane, most folks across East Alabama were reminded of the acute dangers facing our nation.
As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, I believe Congress and the Federal government must do everything in its power to continue ensuring our transportation systems are secure.

Not only should we work to make air travel, our ports and mass transit more secure, among others, but we should ensure our intelligence officials share information better. After all it is not a matter of if terrorists will attack the United States again, but when they will attack.

Before Congress returned to Washington this month, I spent a lot of time talking to folks across the Third District.

In Congress on Your Corner events, folks all expressed their ongoing concerns about the security of our homeland. Many brought up the possibility of transporting roughly 100 terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay to a prison in Illinois.

I am opposed to this for many reasons. First it's an unnecessary use of taxpayer dollars.

Before Christmas, officials in a House Armed Services Committee briefing said the purchase, upgrades and initial operational costs of the prison in Illinois could cost roughly $500 million.

During these tough economic times, it seems spending that kind of money won't do much to help stimulate the economy or help folks across East Alabama find or keep good paying jobs.

That $500 million is close to $5 million per terrorist detainee. It just doesn't make sense to me.
A better use of some of those funds would be to find cost effective screening mechanisms for our airports.

At lot of discussion has centered around full-body scans. If privacy issues were addressed, those scans could turn out to be a prudent investment.

Another wise investment in our security would be for the Federal government to use more explosive detection canines. These highly trained canines could provide security needs throughout our nation's airports and other transportation systems at a fraction of the cost of many other technologies.

Some of the best of these canines are trained by Auburn University at Fort McClellan in Calhoun County. By making a more aggressive investment in cost-effective security measures like explosive detection canines, we could help make our nation safer from terrorist attacks.

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