mr. chairman , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
mr. chairman , i rise in strong support of this amendment and want to thank my good friend and colleague , the gentlewoman from new york ( mrs. lowey ) xz4002460 . 
we have worked on a number of things , including this , for quite some time . 
mr. chairman , 3 years ago i introduced identical legislation that made homeland security funds , first responder funds threat-based . 
that legislation , i am happy to say , has since been supported overwhelmingly by the 9/11 commission , the president , and the secretary of the department of homeland security . 
we passed an amendment by house vote of 409 to 10 as part of the authorizing language for department of homeland security . 
simply , what this is , and this is not a geographic vote , this is not a political-philosophical vote , it simply says the department of homeland secretary and the secretary of that department ought to have the resources and ought to have the flexibility to direct federal resources where they belong , to direct federal resources where the threats exist . 
so if it is in the subway systems or the rail systems or the aviation system or some other system that the threat actually exists , the secretary will have the capacity and the tools to indeed take all of the resources that we have as a nation to protect ourselves . 
we owe it to our constituents . 
it is the highest order of duty here in this body . 
the gentlewoman from new york ( mrs. lowey ) xz4002460 and i have worked on this now for a number of years , and i am thrilled we are offering it here . 
my suspicion is it is going to be accepted here and made part of the patriot act . 
the reason it is part of the patriot act is the original formula , the current formula that we operate under , was part of the original patriot act bill that was passed . 
at that time , we could not have anticipated all of the things we now know to be true as a body . 
this is rectifying something that was an oversight in the original patriot act bill . 
i strongly support that , as i do this bill . 
mr. chairman , i yield back the balance of my time . 
