Senator GREGG offered an amendment. When the bill was finally finished in the Senate. It added $2.548 billion for border security and for port security in this country. both of which are woefully underresourced at the present time. The bill. as I said. included $1.9 billion of the $2.5 billion for sealing off and securing our borders far better than they are now. The Bush administration then proposed an additional amendment of $1.9 billion. but insisted that it supplant. not supplement but supplant. the proposal that Senator GREGG had passed by a substantial margin on the Senate floor. Now. what is in the Bush package we dont oppose. We have. in fact. been proposing more detention beds and more border security agents and more effort there for some time now. So we dont oppose that $1.9 billion. But look at what Senator GREGG put in the bill. which was not pulled out of thin air. basic meat and potatoes. practical requirements that are needed if we are really going to bolt down our borders. The P3 fleet. which serves as our border securitys primary air surveillance. is 40 years old. That is a Lockheed Electra platform. an old turboprop plane. 20 years beyond the average life of even this type of plane. Two months ago the entire fleet was grounded due to a safety issue uncovered during a routine inspection.
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border security