Joyce’s Bill To Enhance National Security Clears Committee

? During a markup on Wednesday, Congressman John Joyce's legislation to modernize America's security infrastructure advanced out of the House Homeland Security Committee with bipartisan support. The Emerging Transportation Security Threats Act of 2019 (H.R. 3318), which creates a task force to analyze emerging and potential threats to transportation security and requires the TSA to take action to mitigate such threats, is now cleared to be taken up by the House of Representatives as a whole.

"In order to stay ahead of our enemies and protect our country, we must be vigilant in our efforts to update our security technology and infrastructure," Congressman Joyce said after his committee's markup. "Developing new, innovative, strategies to ensure that America never falls victim to another terror attack, requires partnering with stakeholders in allied industries and ensuring we properly evaluate any potential weaknesses we might have in our national security. This legislation is a common sense approach to doing the number one job we have as lawmakers keeping our citizens safe - and I urge the Speaker to take it up as soon as possible."

A video of Joyce advocating for the measure before his committee can be found below.

During Wednesday's markup, the House Homeland Security Committee also considered the Homeland Security Improvement Act. Title I within this legislation establishes a partisan, 9/11 style commission to "investigate" President Trump's handling of the border crisis. Six of the ten members serving on the commission would be Democrats, and Speaker Pelosi would appoint its Chairman. These Commissioners would not be required to have the any border security or law enforcement experience. Additionally, the provision would authorize a baseline of $3 million to carry out prescribed functions, and six-figure salaries for the staff of the Commission.

Joyce, who represents the region where Flight 93 crashed on September 11^th, objected to the fact that the measure equates the heinous terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans with the Trump Administration's handling of the border crisis. The 13^th District lawmaker offered an amendment to strike the Title I in its entirety.

A video of Joyce offering his amendment, defending the Trump administration's efforts to secure the border, and calling on Congress to fix the loopholes in our immigration system can be found below.

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