Homeland Security
Louisiana is home to the largest port complex in the world, extensive energy and chemical infrastructure, world renowned entertainment and convention facilities, numerous special events, and several major military installations and command headquarters. These assets are vital to the nation’s economy and security, and Senator Landrieu is committed to protecting them through key positions she holds as Chair of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee and a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. She is also heavily focused on disaster preparedness and recovery, counterterrorism, border security, and cyber security.
Border Security
Chair Landrieu’s Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations legislation provides funding for 21,370 Border Patrol agents and canine teams, 33,400 detention beds for illegal aliens, $400 million for border fencing and technology, $33 million for air and marine assets including Black Hawk helicopters, and additional funding for special agents and local law enforcement authorities to conduct investigations and arrests against criminal organizations responsible for smuggling illegal weapons, narcotics, and aliens across the border, conducting worksite inspections to determine the legal status of workers, and removing criminals from the country. Senator Landrieu also cosponsored legislation that was enacted in 2011 that gives federal law enforcement additional authority to fight border tunneling by criminal organizations.
Coast Guard
Chair Landrieu is committed to supporting the United States Coast Guard, a critical agency for the State of Louisiana that conducted 33,000 rescues during the response to Katrina, and which continues to fight oil spills along our waterways and coast, protect our ports and refineries, keep our mariners safe, and intercept drugs and migrants on the water. She is particularly focused on providing training and support for the service’s 42,000 military personnel and modernizing the Coast Guard’s aging fleet of marine and air assets with the help of skilled and qualified shipbuilders from Louisiana and elsewhere.
Transportation Security
Chair Landrieu is dedicated to preventing attacks against the country’s aviation sector and ensuring the security of our nation’s transit systems and pipelines. She has funded reinforced cockpit doors, Federal Air Marshals, Behavior Detection Officers, cargo explosives detection systems, and non-intrusive passenger screening technology for the Transportation Security Administration. Senator Landrieu is working closely with TSA to facilitate a more passenger-friendly approach to security through the replacement of intrusive scanning equipment, elimination of pat-downs for passengers that do not represent a threat, and the development of a trusted traveler program currently being tested in several airports that allows pre-screened passengers to pass through security without removing their shoes, laptops, coats, or liquid containers.
