News from Congresswoman Jane Harman

Congresswoman Jane harman - Press Release

June 11, 2001

Harman Calls On House Leadership To Set 9/11/02 As Target Date For Creating Department Of Homeland Security

- "A fitting tribute to the thousands of innocent people who died on 9/11/01
would be to create the Department of Homeland Security by 9/11/02"-

WASHINGTON D.C. - Led by Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), Ranking Member on the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, four lawmakers at the forefront of proposing a cabinet level homeland security department today endorsed the suggestion that 9/11/02 should be the target date for enacting legislation to do so.

In a letter to Speaker Hastert and Minority Leader Gephardt, the lawmakers wrote, "We strongly endorse the suggestion that we set 9-11-02 as the target date for completing Congressional action to fine tune and enact into law the President's Department of Homeland Security proposal."

At a hearing today on homeland security reorganization, Harman and Representatives William "Mac" Thornberry (R-TX), Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), and Jim Gibbons (R-NV) wrote, "A fitting tribute to the thousands of innocent people who died on 9/11/01 would be to create the Department of Homeland Security by 9/11/02. Dedicated American workers have already removed all the debris from Ground Zero ahead of schedule. And they will complete repairs of the Pentagon ahead of schedule as well. Congress must now act in a bipartisan fashion to do its part to protect America by striving to approve a bill creating a new Department of Homeland Security at our extraordinary Congressional session in New York City on September 6, and to witness the signing ceremony at the Pentagon on 9-11."

Harman and the three other members are sponsors of H.R. 4660, the National Homeland Security And Combating Terrorism act of 2002, bicameral homeland security legislation that would establish a cabinet-level Department of National Homeland Security to develop and coordinate a national strategy to combat terrorism.

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