Energy in America

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I thank my friend for yielding. And the gentleman from Iowa is indeed an expert on renewable energy, and I've spent a lot of time in his wonderful State examining that program, which is very robust right now.

I thought the gentleman might be interested, because this is a subject that's near and dear to your heart, in the recent progress on the border fence and the recent actions that have been undertaken by the administration.

The gentleman from Iowa and I have linked arms on a number of occasions to do several things: one, pass the border fence legislation that mandates the construction of a double fence across the southern border for about 854 miles. And as we know, that legislation was watered down some in December by the Senate, but it remains a mandate to do at least 700 miles of fence. And the administration just undertook the waiver of environmental regulations that would keep the fence from being built for many years.

In fact, I remember that when we tried to fence Smugglers Gulch, where a great deal of cocaine came into the United States between San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico, we were delayed for 12 years by a series of lawsuits and regulations being invoked. I think the last regulatory delay revolved around whether or not a gnatcatcher would fly over a 12-foot-high fence, and after a year I think the experts concluded that indeed that gnatcatcher could clear the fence; so we could build it.

So the administration has invoked this waiver, and I want to commend Secretary Chertoff for undertaking that waiver because it's absolutely necessary if we're going to get the fence built. Otherwise, we will never get it built. And today the southwest border, and particularly Texas along with Arizona, are absolutely on fire with the smuggling of drugs and illegal aliens. And last year they moved about 22 metric tons of cocaine across the border, across the southwest border, and about 368 tons of marijuana. So it's still a trafficking corridor or a series of corridors which are flowing relatively unimpeded by this relatively small force of Border Patrolmen and Customs and DEA agents who attend the border. But getting that double-border fence up, and in some cases it's a single fence--I would like to see a double fence all the way across--but getting that fence up is going to have a great, very salutary effect on law enforcement in the United States.

And I'm reminded that when we built the double fence in San Diego, the crime rate by FBI statistics in the county of San Diego dropped by 56.3 percent. And I think if we indeed get the series of fences up across the southwest border, you're going to see fewer criminal aliens being incarcerated at the Federal, State, and local level. And right now there are 250,000 of them in incarceration.

So since the gentleman has been my partner in these endeavors, I knew he would want to hear the report.

A hearing was chaired by the Committee on Resources and two subcommittees in Brownsville, Texas, and I think we aired the issues very fully. And if you listened to all the testimony, a couple of things were clear: One, we need the fence because no one has an alternative; and, number two, if we don't get the waivers, we will never get the fence built.

So I thought the gentleman would be interested in that progress, and I just wanted to report that to him.

And I thank you for yielding.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HUNTER. If the gentleman will yield.

What that really amounts to is that this industry of moving this poison across the international border to the United States is cocaine that poisons our young people. That is such a massive industry now on the southern border of the U.S. that the drug gangs are fighting each other for control of this lucrative industry. That is what it represents. That is another reason why we need to build that border fence.

Incidentally, we had 202,000 arrests in the area where the fence has now been constructed between San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico. After we constructed it, we went down to 9,000 arrests. That is a reduction of more than 90 percent. And in the Yuma sector, where we have also now constructed double fencing, we went from 138,000 arrests to a little under 4,000. That is more than a 95 percent reduction.

So of all the things that we have tried with respect to controlling the border, we have discovered that one thing does work and that is a border fence. The President and Mr. Chertoff should be commended for invoking this waiver that we gave them so we can move ahead on this very, very important part of the people's business, and that is keeping their kids safe.

The last statistic that I would give the gentleman that I brought up in Brownsville was this. Last year, we intercepted 58,000 people coming across the border from Mexico who were not citizens of Mexico. They came from virtually every country in the world. More than 800 of them came from Communist China, 14 came from Iran, and 3 of them came from North Korea. That means that anybody in the world with a television set can understand very quickly that the way to get into the United States illegally is no longer through the airports, because they have been effectively blocked. It's to get to Mexico and cross the land border between Mexico and the U.S. Another reason to build the border fence.

Mr. KING of Iowa. I want to reiterate too the utilization of the waiver. As I have tracked that through the news, I also commend Secretary Chertoff for utilizing the waiver to go forward and build the fence. As the gentleman from California references, the fence and the triple barriers that exist down in the southwestern Arizona area, San Luis, south of Yuma, I remember visiting there and asking the question of Secretary Chertoff, We always hear the statement if you build, I will show you an 11-foot ladder, you build a 20-foot fence, I'll show you a 21-foot ladder.

I saw the fence down there, and as I asked this question, Has anyone defeated this barrier, and it had to be asked a number of times, and the answer came back no. When I was there, no one had defeated the new triple fencing barrier that was constructed in the San Luis area where the crossings have gone down from 138,000 to 4,000.

I ask the gentleman from California, are you aware that anyone has defeated the triple barrier fence anywhere?

Mr. HUNTER. No. As long as you have a modicum of manning, that is if you leave a fence totally alone, obviously a person can come in, sit down for hours with welding gear and cut through anything, or bring in heavy construction equipment and cut through anything. As long as you have a modicum of manning. That is why you have the Border Patrol road in between the fences, so the smuggler has to come across the first fence, cross a high speed Border Patrol road, sit down with his welding gear and work on the second fence, or carry that 22-foot ladder. Then the question comes back to the person who makes that statement--incidentally, that statement was made by Governor Napolitano, who is the Governor of Arizona.

Now, let me see. She said, You show me a 20-foot fence, I'll show you a 21-foot ladder. She derided the fence. And in her district where we built the double fence at Yuma, we have brought down the arrest rate from 138,000 to 4,000. So apparently the smugglers haven't read her statement that they should have no problem with this fence.

But it does work and, incidentally, the other thing it does is it leverages the Border Patrol. Because we were able to pull Border Patrolmen off our fenced area and move them to other places on the southern border. You don't need as many Border Patrolmen when you have an impediment, that is when you have the fence in place.

So for those who say the question is, How many Border Patrol can we get? You free up a lot of Border Patrolmen by having the fence. Incidentally, you need to have that double fence because you trap the smugglers in between the two fences.

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his great work on this important issue. We will continue to work together.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I thank my friend for yielding. He truly is the resident expert on ethanol production and it has been very interesting to listen to him.

Another aspect of providing enough energy, of course, and becoming energy independent, which really is a national security issue at this point, is that we have to use all of our sources. And it is important for this body and for the other body, for the U.S. Senate, to pass finally permission for us to drill in Alaska.

Right now we have got an abolition on drilling, a lot of impediments to moving forward and increasing the amount of petroleum product that is available to the American people. If we drill in Alaska, and, incidentally, the Alaskan pipeline has not hurt any wildlife species. You can see caribou rubbing their summer coats on the Alaskan pipeline. They are that worried about it.

If we drill in Alaska, we are going to find new oil. We will also be able to utilize the production that is available there. And every drop of oil that we produce in this continent is oil that we don't have to worry about coming through the Straits of Hormuz. That is that narrow channel of water where the Iranian gunboats came out and harassed an American naval ship here a couple of months ago, where we are constantly watching a short-fused situation with very unstable countries, monitoring that particular dangerous part of the world.

Having energy independence for this country is a very, very important part of national security, and we should open up Alaska so we can utilize in a very responsible way the petroleum resources that lie under that great State.

I thank the gentleman.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Well, I would say to my friend, I think he has made an excellent point. The way you bring down the price on any commodity is to increase the supply. And we have got a number of leaders in this House who have undertaken, if you look at their legislative record, undertaken a major campaign to stop the supply, to strangle the supply, to diminish the supply of petroleum production. And every time we take wells out of production or we don't produce, where we know we have known reserves, then we are handing part of our future to people in another part of the world who don't have America's best interests at heart.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source