Speech #1090157754

That amendment amounts to a 5.7 percent decrease to critical programs such as the Coast Guard operations that are absolutely essential in both homeland security and with the number of domestic issues. His amendment would also cut FEMA and disaster relief funds at the height of the hurricane and western forest fire season. and it cuts funding from the Secret Service for the protection of the President. This amendment also cuts a lot of our critical border security programs. On a bipartisan basis earlier this week. the Senate increased funding for border security programs by $350 million. The bill that is before the Senate right now has $11 billion for Customs and border protection and immigration and Customs enforcement. The irony of the Senators amendment is that it would cut funding for the hiring of 1.000 new Border Patrol agents to pay for the fence. His amendment cuts funding for 1.000 additional detention beds to pay for this fence. And his amendment cuts funding for unmanned aerial investigation and surveillance helicopters and Border Patrol helicopters to pay for this fence. The bill before the Senate is carefully constructed and balanced to provide funding for homeland security priorities within very limited resources. I know the chairman and the ranking member of this committee have worked long and hard to balance a lot of requests regarding homeland security.