Speech #1100083517

Mr. President. the PATRIOT Act required that DHS triple the number for border patrol agents at the northern border. the Trade Act of 2002 required 285 additional customs Inspectors for the northern border and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 included a provision that authorized an increase of 2.000 U.S. border protection agents each year from FY2006 through FY2010 and further required that 20 percent of the increase in agent manpower each fiscal year be assigned to the northern border. However. nearly a third of those agents have not been deployed to the northern border. According to the Congressional Research Service. the gap between the authorized level of Customs and Border Protection officers at the northern border and the actual number of officers deployed there will be roughly 1.517 in FY2008. I am pleased that the Senate just passed the GrahamPryor amendment that will provide $3 billion for border security and 23.000 full time agents to our borders. I ask my friend from West Virginia. the chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Is it the Intent of the amendment to provide those assets to both the northern and southern borders. and. to further implement the authorizations I mentioned. to deploy more agents to the northern border?