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First Congressional District of New Mexico
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ask.heather@mail.house.gov

In Washington DC
442 Cannon House
Office Building
Washington, DC
20515
202-225-6316 Phone
202-225-4975 Fax
In Albuquerque
20 First Plaza NW
Suite 603
Albuquerque, NM
87102
505-346-6781 Phone
505-346-6723 Fax

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Congresswoman Heather Wilson, First Congressional District of New Mexico


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We`re back! November 18, 2002
 
Dear Friends, We`re back! We had to suspend our newsletter before the election because of some unclear House rules that I hope to get fixed this year. The Congress came back to Washington this week to prepare for the next Congress and clean up the final business of this one. Retiring members are clearing out their offices and new members are learning their way around, hiring staff and getting oriented. The results of the election in the Senate broke open the log jam on some important pieces of legislation. The House passed a Homeland Security bill creating a new department from pieces of 22 other agencies several months ago, but the Senate couldn`t get one through. A House-Senate group met over the weekend and reached agreement. We passed it in the House last night. No matter how good the intentions of people, hand-offs between agencies create points of failure in the effort to protect the homeland. We needed to get people and organizations better aligned to do the job. But, we also knew that just moving around boxes on the organization chart wasn`t enough. We can`t hire enough guards with dogs to protect our homeland. We needed to create an organization that could build on our strengths: intelligence and technology are two of the most important. The new agency needs to be able to rapidly integrate information and analyze it. The House version of the legislation gives them this ability. The new agency needs to focus on research and development and the rapid fielding of technology. We created an undersecretary for Research and Development that will have direct access to all of our national laboratories. The legislation is only the first step. Pulling together a new department with thousands of employees will be a huge management challenge. But it`s time to get it done. Wish you were here,
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