It creates a new dedicated grant fund to support interoperable communications equipmentcomplicated words which simply mean whether in a crisis. a potential terrorist attack. or a natural disaster such as Katrina. our firefighters. our police officers. our emergency responders can talk to each other as they were not able to do on 9/11. This is a balanced. progressive recommendation to solve once and for all by legislation the ongoing dispute about how to distribute homeland security grant funding. We have improved the security requirements of the socalled visa waiver program. We have strengthened the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board and done much else. There is a lot constructive here. One of the parts of this legislation that I believe still should be the least controversial and. frankly. not the most important but an act of fairness consistent with our effort to improve homeland security. was simply to give the transportation security officers at the Transportation Security Agency. who now can join a union but cannot collectively bargain. the same right to collectively bargain in very limited areas without the right to strike. the same rights that most other employees at the Department of Homeland Security. including law enforcement personnel. have and continue to have. without impeding their carrying out of their law enforcement public safety functions. That includes the Border Patrol. obviously at the Capitol that includes our Capitol Police. and throughout America it includes firefighters and police officers. It is unfortunate that is so much the focus of discussion about this bill because this bill is a direct response to the appeals of the 9/11 Commissioners and the 9/11 families to take constructive action to respond to the statements that the Commission itself made in 2004 and again in 2005: America is safer than it was on 9/11/01 but not yet safe enough. This bill. which is not controversial and ought to receive nonpartisan support. will make the people of America. in an age of terrorism. safer yet than they have been before.
Keywords matched
Border Patrol visa