I agree with the gentleman that traffickers are using lookouts to spy on law enforcement operations and to assess where our agents are. just as were looking at them. But I dont see any rationale for dedicating funding for an initiative of the sort that he describes. The bill provides funding for an additional 3.000 Border Patrol agents and $1 billion to continue and expand the border security program. The identification and the elimination of the kind of lookout posts that hes describing on U.S. territory is a matter for CBP to deal with if it involves crossing- the border. and for other law enforcement agencies to deal with if its strictly a domestic violation. Now. the funding in this bill has been increased. increased a great deal. to provide the Border Patrol all these new agents. and to better meet the cargo and port security vulnerabilities addressed. for example. in the SAFE Port Act. So this is not a costless funding shift. Its a shift in funding that would reduce resources for these departmental priorities. priorities in which the committee fully concurs and. in fact. in some cases has increased.
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Border Patrol border security