mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding me time . 
the 9/11 commission was constituted in order to tell the american public what we could do to avoid or stave off another attack like the one that occurred on 9/11 . 
i rise in support of this rule taking up the conference report because i think the components that we have included , recommended by the 9/11 commission , are vital for the purpose of national security for the united states . 
let us look at the consequences of the 19 hijackers who , by violating procedures with respect to identification , were able to shop from state to state , from california to virginia to florida , and obtain between them over 60 different types of ids . 
i will remind the body that in terms of the aliases used just by those 19 individuals , they used 364 aliases between them . 
so as a consequence , it was virtually impossible for authorities to follow or detect as they changed their identities , as they used these documents in order to rent cars , as they used these documents in order to take flight training lessons , to learn how to fly here in the united states , as they used these fraudulent documents even to board airplanes and crash them into the twin towers and into the pentagon . 
we have to ask ourselves is there something we , as an institution , could do to make certain that this did not occur again ? 
the 9/11 commission has laid out a strategy for a secure identification system , and basically what we are talking about is simply minimum standards so that all states know the rudimentary requirements to make certain that people are who they say they are . 
because the 9/11 hijackers abused the process and went from state to state , we know for a fact that we need minimum standards . 
we know that it only makes sense that when mohamed atta was given a visa that was valid for only 6 months but could use it to obtain a driver 's license that was valid for 6 years , that , in fact , we were not tailoring our laws to fit our national security concerns . 
there are other provisions as well , the reform of amnesty , the completion of the border fence , the expedited approval . 
but as we look at the border security issue with respect to completion of the border fence , i talked to a border agent who had stopped an individual originally from kyrgyzstan who had trained in afghanistan , who had trained there in jihad , at the fence . 
what this particular border guard told me was that there is a 3-mile gap in that triple barrier fence , and it was within that area of that gap that this individual tried to come into the u.s. and was apprehended and returned . 
i think we need to give our border security personnel the assets that they have requested . 
we need to help them do their job , and the completion of this triple barrier fence will achieve that objective because it is in the interest of national security . 
i think it is proper we bring it up and include it in this bill . 
