Mr. President. last year when the Senate was considering the national intelligence reform bill. we adopted several recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. One of those recommendations was to hire an additional 2.000 new Custom and border protection agents each year for the next 5 years. This body agreed with the recommendation. We agreed that our national security depended on such an investment. and we enacted that recommendation into law. We are now considering a budget resolution that will determine whether Congress will keep the promise we made to the American people to protect our Nations borders. There are many provisions in this budget that demonstrate a commitment to border security. I thank and congratulate Chairman Gregg for those provisions. But the budget that was reported out of committee includes funding for only 1.500 new agents in the coming year. My amendment would provide $153 million to ensure that we hire 2.000 new agents next year. This amendment is fully offset. Lets face itthe threat of illegal border crossing by people who wish to kill us is very real. In order to prevent another terrorist attack on American soil. we must improve every aspect of our Nations security. Our security is truly only as strong as our weakest link.
Keywords matched
border crossing border security border protection