U.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY

“This bill is a complex series of steps toward improving our security by addressing vulnerabilities identified in the 9/11 Commission’s report.  As difficult as it was to get to the point of passing this bill, the most difficult and the most important work lies ahead in implementing it and in Congress’s oversight responsibilities. 

“I’m pleased that the bill retains support for first responders in smaller states like ours.  In Vermont, our first responders are charged with protecting a 90-mile border with Canada to the north and a nuclear power plant on the banks of the Connecticut River to the south.  This bill preserves basic homeland security funding for all states, regardless of size, and charters the additional resources that we need on the Northern Border.  

“We always need to balance our security needs with our privacy and civil liberties interests, and I have worked to help strike that balance in this bill, including with the creation of a civil liberties protection board. 

 “This bill is complex, it is imperfect, and the stakes are high.  Vigilance by the Congress, by the public and by the press will be important as we go forward, to give us the chance to identify and correct its flaws and deficiencies.

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[The National Intelligence Reform Act retains the Leahy all-state minimum funding formula for allocating first-responder grants for domestic preparedness, which has brought more than $50 million in grants to Vermont’s police, firefighters and rescue squads in the last three years.  The bill also authorizes funding for the addition of 400 agents over the next five years to patrol the Northern Border.]