There is clearly a crisis situation there. What Senator MIKULSKI. the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. has done is reduced the Presidents budget request by $1 billion. if I am not mistaken. and said: We will respond to this emergency request with these resources and realize that more is going to be done. On the other side of the aisle. the senior Senator from Texas has come in and talked about changing immigration law. He was kind enough to acknowledge that we made an effort to change the immigration law right here on the floor of the Senate over a year ago with 68 votes. Fourteen Republicans joined the Democrats in a comprehensive immigration bill. The Senator from Texas acknowledged he did not vote for it. Had he voted for it. he would have voted for the most dramatic increase in border security in American history. But he voted against it. That is his choice. I respect his judgment. But to come to us today and say: Now we have to vote again on border securitywe had a chance. The Senate passed it. What happened to the comprehensive immigration reform bill? It made it over to the House of Representatives and disappeared into vapor. It was never called for consideration. So it is not as if we have ignored the problems of immigration. We addressed them forthrightly in a bipartisan fashion. in a comprehensive fashion. and the House of Representatives refused to even call the bill. Lets go to this particular issue.
Keywords matched
immigration border security