DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008

Mr. McCaul of Texas- I rise today not in opposition to what this legislation stands for, but out of concern for what this legislation fails to include.

Numerous provisions that were part of the authorization bill which were approved unanimously and reported by the Committee on Homeland Security were removed from the legislation that is before us today. And these provisions were largely eliminated without any real policy justification for their removal. Never in the history of the Homeland Security Committee has such an action been done.

One of these provisions stripped from the authorization bill before us today was based on a piece of legislation I introduced which authorizes the National Bio and Agro Facility, or NBAF. The text of this legislation was unanimously approved at the Committee on Homeland Security authorization bill markup.

I am at a loss as to why my colleagues across the other side of the aisle unilaterally decided to eliminate the NBAF provision from this bill, especially when some of my Democratic colleagues on the committee, including Chairman Thompson, were original cosponsors of the NBAF legislation.

The need for the NBAF is clear and immediate. Its establishment is crucial to defending our Nation from agroterrorism and naturally occurring animal diseases. Currently, there's not one Biosafety Level 3 and BSL 4 livestock laboratory in the United States, and the NBAF provision would have authorized a facility to fill that gap.

DHS is conducting a site selection process right now. Eighteen sites have been looked at across the country, one close to my district at Texas A&M. They are investing significant resources in the competition.

I'd also like to note that some of the other sites being considered lie in or near districts represented by Democratic colleagues.

Congress has already provided $46 million for pre-construction NBAF activities, and yet, DHS currently does not have the legal authority it needs to even procure the land.

Because the enactment of this legislation is crucial to the establishment of the NBAF and to defending the Nation against the threats of agroterrorism, and because this legislation was eliminated from the authorization bill before us, I urge my colleagues to work to move forward in a bipartisan way to help secure our homeland and to pass H.R. 1717.