Everyone remembers where they were onSept. 11, 2001.
Twenty-five years later, I still remember every detail of that morning.
I was at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport – in the district I would one day represent – waiting to greet President George W. Bush after his visit to Emma E. Booker Elementary School just a few miles away.
It was supposed to be an ordinary morning, a handshake and a photo with the president.
Instead, a Secret Service agent pulled me into a back room.
He told me a small plane may have gotten off course and struck one of the towers at the World Trade Center in New York. He said the president would be with me shortly.
At that point, everybody still thought it was an accident. A terrible accident, but an accident.
Minutes
later he came back. A second plane had hit. We were under attack.
Air Force One was sitting on the tarmac right in front of me.
The president was abruptly rushed into his motorcade and loaded aboard.
I watched as the plane climbed almost vertically off the runway. I had never seen an aircraft climb like that.
I stood there and watched it go, and I did not know where he was going or when any of us would know anything again.
You cannot imagine, standing on a runway in Sarasota on a Tuesday morning, that someone would fly an airplane into a building full of people.
Nearly 3,000 of them never made it home.
The need for support remains
Twenty five years later, I still remember every detail of that morning as if it happened yesterday.
The children President Bush was reading with at Booker Elementary School that morning were 7 years old.
They are in their 30s now.
Some of them have children of their own who have never known what our nation was like before.
I have thought a lot about how different this country was the day before.
On Sept. 10, 2001, there was no Department of Homeland Security.
There was no TSA.
People boarded airplanes without giving it a second thought, because we did not live like a country that expected to be attacked at home.
All of it was built afterward, at a terrible price.
In the years right after 2001, this country spent whatever it took to safeguard our nation. But then time passed and the funding fights got harder.
That day taught me a hard lesson: The men and women who protect us – our first responders, our intelligence professionals, the agencies that stand watch over our airports, borders and infrastructure – cannot do their critical jobs without sustained support from Congress.
Homeland security is not a line item we fund once and set aside. It is a continuing obligation.
That obligation does not stop at a speech for me.
It shows up in how I vote.
In 2019, I voted for the Never Forget the Heroes Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump andpermanently funded the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund so that responders and survivors who became sick from their work at Ground Zero would never have to worry about their care being cut off or delayed by Washington.
That same principle has to guide how we fund homeland security today.
The threats have changed since 2001 from hijacked airliners to cyberattacks on our power grids, hospitals andwater systems – but the need for round-the-clock vigilance has not.
TSA screeners, Coast Guard crews, cybersecurity personnel and local fire and EMS departments are the modern front line of the fight that began on 9/11.
That day deserves more than a tribute.
It deserves sustained funding for the agencies and first responders who carry that mission forward today.
This year, I once again co-sponsored the 9-1-1 SAVES Act, which would finally classify 911 dispatchers as first responders. They are the first voice you hear on the worst day of your life. We ought to call them what they are.
Honor the spirit of unity
Every year in this district, I host a ceremony to honor our fire, rescue and EMS crews, because the people who run toward the emergency deserve more than one day.
America’s darkest day was Sept. 11, 2001.
Its brightest was Sept. 12, 2001 – when the entire country stood together.
We honor that unity best not with speeches alone, but by making sure the people and agencies standing between us and the next attack have what they need, every year – not just this one.
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., is the vice chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and the chairman of the Health Subcommittee. Prior to serving in Congress, Buchanan was in business for over 30 years and chaired both the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce and Florida Chamber of Commerce.
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: I stood on a Sarasota runway as America changed forever | Opinion
