Senator COCHRAN. provided the subcommittee with some additional resources. but the fact remains that this bill is still $515 million below the Presidents request and $350 million lower than the bill that was passed by the House of Representatives last month. The amendment I am offering today attempts to rectify this discrepancy. My amendment provides an additional $350 million for border security infrastructure enhancements. and it is fully paid for. I am pleased that the chairman of the subcommittee. Senator GREGG. is working with me on this amendment. As we continue to hire more Border Patrol agents and other immigration enforcement officials. we need to give them the tools they need to do their job. and we need to start paying for those tools now so they will be available as more and more Border Patrol and immigration enforcement officials are hired and trained. The Border Patrol needs new helicopters because the average age of its helicopters is nearly 40 years. The average age of our Customs primary fixedwing aircraft is 30 years. All of our border enforcement officials. including the newly hired officials. need more vehicles. including allterrain vehicles. high endurance vehicles. and even more buses to transport and remove illegal aliens. Customs and Border Protection has a requirement for 18 unmanned aerial vehicles. or UAVs. The Senatepassed immigration bill authorizes more UAVs. Yet the only one we had operating on our border crashed in the desert this past spring. The amendment I am offering provides real dollars for our aging border infrastructure.
Keywords matched
border security immigration border enforcement Border Patrol Border Protection illegal aliens