SEN. WARNER: Yeah. So more emphasis, yes. But I want to certainly say the
Navy Department, in my judgment, conscientiously and certainly in the last
year has looked at those options very carefully.
To another subject, and that is I certainly commend our president when he
was a candidate and indeed now that he's president, has recognized that we
have a situation here at home where perhaps only in the times of World War
II did we consider "homeland defense." And this committee, I'm proud, under
the leadership of our former Chairman Roberts, and now our new Chairman
Landrieu, the committee that looks at the future, the threats to this
nation, are bearing down again on homeland defense. And I'll be scrutinizing
your budget submissions to make sure that it's adequate, because we've got
to prepare for an attack here at home of a terrorist nature in some form
right in the cities here in the United States, and how best this nation
responds.
We had, a group of us, the chairman and ranking members of the Intelligence
Committee, Armed Services Committee, Foreign Relations Committee, the
Appropriations Committee, who for two days sat down -- you came before that
committee and gave us your thoughts on how you could marshal the resources
of your department to address this problem. Clearly, the lines of authority,
the lines of responsibility and how we would respond I think can be
improved. And I hope this administration, and that you will take a
leadership role in doing that so that we've got that better understood and
who's got what responsibility, should this crisis hit us.
June 28, 2001
http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/2001/s20010628-secdef3.html
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