I would make one other point. My second concern about this bill is not directed at what the bill does contain. but rather what this bill does not contain. The Senate adopted a separate amendment. the ByrdGregg amendment. which would have added $2.5 billion in additional funding for border security and port security. Unfortunately. the conferees chose to eliminate that funding from the bill. That means that they did not provide the $1.9 billion that the Senate had asked us to provide to do things such as replace outdated aircraft. The P3 fleet. which serves as border securitys primary air surveillance mechanism. is over 40 years old. 20 years beyond the average life of that type of plane. The entire fleet needs to be overhauled to extend the service life. This bill does not measure up to that. We also have nearly 1.700 vehicles which are unusable due to wear and tear because of the environment. the extreme burden that that environment places on Border Patrol agents equipment and vehicles. This bill does not provide funding for that. This bill lacks sufficient patrol aircraft.
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border security Border Patrol