Mr. Chairman. what disappoints me most on this legislation is. the men and women that are on the front lines. the Border Patrol agents. are the most left out of this particular legislative vehicle. Quickly. Mr. Chairman. I will tell you that an amendment that was offered by myself and Mr. THOMPSON. the ranking member. specifically gives tools to those Border Patrol agents. who I believe are the people that are entrusted with the responsibility of securing the borders by the American people. We do not have aircraft and watercraft. which are valuable tools. We do not have the helicopters that are necessary. We do not have the necessary Border Patrol agents. which in my amendment to H.R. 4044. the bill that we offered. the homeland security legislation. we would have added 10.000 more agents. We would have added provisions about recruitment and retention problems so that we would have an experienced Border Patrol agency. Mr. Chairman. my friend. Mr. REYES. indicated the importance of a secure homeland with the right kind of personnel. We would have raised the base pay for a journey level Border Patrol agent to a GS13. We leave out the very men and women on the front lines. and I would hope we will go back and fix this legislation to do that.
Keywords matched
Border Patrol