Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations, Fiscal Year 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEWIS of California. Madam Speaker, I very much appreciate my colleague yielding. I thank not only the gentleman for yielding, but the chairman as well, for their cooperative working relationship with me. On the other hand, Madam Speaker, it really pains me to have to be here today and comment on this emergency bill.

Securing our borders, thwarting ruthless drug cartels, and enforcing immigration laws should unquestionably be among our highest priorities. But why are we here today, with only seven weeks remaining in this fiscal year, debating a supplemental that CBO says will not take effect until next year? So we are going to solve a problem for 2010 that can't even begin to be enforced until next year. This bill will have to go back to the Senate because of the way it is structured.

Meanwhile, there is no plan to complete the vital FY 2011 Homeland Security and Defense appropriations bills. The chairman mentioned that the homeland bill had been marked up, et cetera, but it will not be in the full committee, no chance to amend it on the floor, et cetera. It is business as usual.

This bill is only on the floor today to allow the Democratic majority to claim that they care about border security. It won't go into effect soon. It won't solve

our border problems, and it makes a mockery of our annual appropriations process, where these problems should be handled.

Even the bill's $600 million worth of new spending is paid for with questionable tactics. Avoiding cuts to wasteful government spending, the Democratic majority is penalizing businesses with increased fees. How are de facto tax increases going to increase jobs and help our economy? And we will be paying for these so-called emergency funds for some time because they will result in increased operating costs for future years as well.

Madam Speaker, with the drug war continuing to escalate along the Southwest border and the States clamoring for help, and with the cost of illegal immigration, the American people expect real solutions from Congress. Instead, we have another round of throwing money at problems with no real understanding of how we are going to get out of this mess.

We should have already completed fiscal year 2011 appropriation bills for homeland security and defense, as has been suggested, and taken care of these problems in an orderly and rational way. Instead, we are left with haphazard schemes that seem more like political cover than real budget solutions to our security. This is not the way the Congress should get its work done.

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