Speech #1090175480

Speaker. I thank the chairman for his leadership and the ranking minority member. It is clear that we have had the goal for adding Border Patrol agents for some time in this Congress. A number of years ago when the Homeland Security Committee was first being created and we were looking at how better to protect our border. it became apparent that as we went to air marshals. we had more people leaving the Border Patrol than we could hire. When we were hiring into the Border Patrol. we were pulling them out of State and local police. and then they would move over to other agencies. Unless we take special efforts in this Congress to do more to retain our Border Patrol and pay additional money to them. we are not going to be able to meet the hypothetical goals that we have set for ourselves. When we debated about fencing on the border. we heard that we need to have more Border Patrol. We have had difficulty holding the Border Patrol we have and meeting the numbers of our current assessments which would only put us to a fraction of actually controlling the border. That is why in the House. and most on our side at least support border fencing and virtual fencing. but we also support dramatic increases in the number of Border Patrol and changing and making adaptations in their pay scales and in their retention because without that. we will not have adequate Border Patrol. 0J 1915 So I thank the chairman for his leadership with this because this is an important part of a comprehensive border 19856 CONGRf strategy for the people who are on the ground who have in many cases jobs where they sit there for long periods of time. where they may or may not see somebody coming in through the southern border in particular in very hot environments. and to retain somebody in that job requires additional assistance. And 1 am glad to see that we are authorizing that. that we are starting to move ahead. because this is one of the most critical steps. along with the fencing. in controlling the Southwest border.