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Call your Senators! Tell them to Just Say 'NO' to Fascism!
Update: 9/28/02
The Byrd Amendment was defeated on 9/24/02, with 28 Senators voting for the Byrd amendment: If your Senator is on this list, be sure to thank them for standing up for the Constitution! Find your Senator's contact information at Juan E. Cabanela's "Contacting the Congress" site. (Click on your state for phone numbers and email addresses. If you'd prefer to send a fax, click on the "Bio" button next to your Senators' names.) Update: 9/18/02
Senator Byrd's first objection, the "Director" post based in the White House, was removed from the bill on 9/17/02. Today, Senator Byrd will introduce his own amendment to the Homeland Security Bill. You can read a summary of Senator Byrd's amendment on the Senator's website. The amendment basically lays out his phased-in approach to creating the Department of Homeland Security, with Congressional involvement and oversight at each stage. Although the Lieberman amendment has been withdrawn, calls are still needed to support Senator Byrd's amendment to the Homeland Security bill!
From Senator Byrd's remarks Tuesday, 0/17/02:
By forcing the Administration to come back to us, we can insist on knowing more of the plans of this Administration with its penchant for secrecy -- plans which are now only hazy outlines.
We must insist on assurances that in granting more powers to this and future Administrations to investigate terrorism, we are not also granting powers to jeopardize the rights, privacy or privileges of law-abiding citizens.
We must insist on assurances that the Constitutional rights of Americans remain protected. We must insist that the Constitutional control of the purse by the Congress is not compromised.
We must insist on assurances that government reorganization will not be used as a convenient device to dismantle time-honored worker protections.
We must insist on the preservation of our government's Constitutional system of checks and balances and separation of powers.
We have a responsibility to do our best as a nation to get this right. Original Report: 9/16/02
You wouldn't know it from the mainstream media, but last Thursday and Friday, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) nearly single-handedly brought the Homeland Security juggernaut to a halt. Why? Senators Lieberman (D-CT) and Graham (D-FL) introduced an amendment to the bill that he opposed, and the Senate was preparing to vote on that amendment with just 15 minutes of debate. Why does Senator Byrd oppose the bill? Two reasons: 1) There are two positions associated with the Homeland Security bill: A Cabinet officer that will be confirmed by the "advice and consent" of the Senate and that would actually (at least, nominally) be in charge of the department, and a Director of the White House Office of Terrorism. Although the Senate's Homeland Security bill originally provided that this second position would also be confirmed by the Senate, the Lieberman amendment would removes this provision, making the appointment soley the decision of the President. The Director would be responsible for coordinating all aspects of the "war on terra" that aren't in the Department of Homeland Security. According to current legislation, that would include the CIA, the FBI, the military, and some aspects of the INS. Sen. Byrd has been arguing that this post should also be confirmed by the Senate. Note: This provision was removed by the Thompson amendment on 9/17/02. 2) The legislation setting up the department, as it now stands, basically says "Ok, we authorize the department to be formed. You (Bush) can create it however you want to" and that's it for Congressional input. The rest is all on the schedule and at the discretion of the pResident. Byrd's amendment says, we'll authorize the department structure and provide for a phased-in approach to the formation of this Department. You tell us how you want the first part to go, we'll look at that and authorize it if we think it's reasonable. Then we'll see how the department operates, watch what happens, then, you propose how you want the second part to be formed, and we'll repeat the proccess. Senator Byrd stood up for our right to have a say in this Department - both its creation and its personnel. Now the ball's in our court. Call your Senator and tell him or her to vote for the Byrd amendment! May we be as courageous and forceful as Senator Byrd has been in this fight to ensure that Congress retains meaningful oversight and control of both the creation and the operation of this "Department of Homeland Security" behemoth. Find your Senator's phone number at Juan E. Cabanela's "Contacting the Congress" site. (Click on your state. If you'd prefer to send a fax, click on the "Bio" button next to your Senators' names.) Favorite Quotes from Senator Byrd's fillibuster: On the formation of the Department: The administration would like Congress to pass just a mere piece of paper, as it were, handing the Department of Homeland Security over to the administration, saying here, Mr. President, here it is. It is yours, lock, stock, and barrel. Take it. We are out of it. We will stand on the sidelines. [...] ...I am not in favor of doing that. I am in favor of creating a Department of Homeland Security, but I am not in favor of Congress doing that and then walking away and saying: It is yours, Mr. President; for the next 13 months we will go to the sidelines. I am not in favor of that. ...when it comes to transferring the agencies into that Department, how many agencies are there? Some say 22. Some say 28. Some say 30. How many agencies are there? What agencies are they? By what criteria were those agencies selected? Who said that this agency ought to go in but not that one? And why should this agency go there and not that one? Why should that one go in? Why not this one? So all that is going to be left up to the administration. We are going to leave it up to the administration as to the agencies that will go in, as to their functions, as to their objectives, as to their assignments. We are just going to turn it all over--lock, stock, and barrel--to the administration. ...Under my amendment, we say no. Let us just take some at a time. Let us see how it works. Let us create that first directorate. Let us have the recommendation of the Secretary of the Department. Let us have his recommendations. Let the Senate, Mr. Lieberman, and the committee look at it. His committee looks at it and reports the bill to the floor. Let us have the Senate look at it, and the same thing in the House but all under expedited procedures. ...Here is the concept. Your Secretary will send up recommendations in intervals. There will be some of it at a time. We will do the first directorate. While that is going through the mill and during the 4 months when those agencies are being moved in, we are going to be taking a look at the next two directorates. But we will have in mind the flaws and the warts that we found in the first transactions. We will have had an opportunity to try. Let us see how it works. If there are flaws, if there are mistakes, we can correct them as we go along, and the next two directorates will not make those same mistakes. ...It seems to me this is much more logical. It is an orderly process. It keeps Congress--the elected representatives of the people--in the process. And it keeps Mr. Lieberman's committee--which is the committee that has jurisdiction over the subject matter--front and center. Call your Senator and tell him or her to vote for the Byrd amendment! Karen |