Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2012

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Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Madam Chair, most people are clearly not aware that national security on our borders is compromised on public lands by Federal land managers who have the authority to deny the Border Patrol access to those Federal lands. Most people are not aware that we put money into this budget thinking it is going for Homeland Security, only to see it mysteriously transferred over to another agency without Congress ever understanding or authorizing where that transfer is or what that transfer may be.

It is estimated that we have had direct transfers of at least $9 million, although the numbers are not clear. If you add up what the Department of Homeland Security spends on their own part that is not a direct transfer, we may be in the neighborhood of $50 million that is spent on this particular program. This money can be used for land acquisition.

If we really want land acquisition, we put this money in the Interior budget, where it belongs, so we know what it is, we know why it is there, and we can track for what it is used. This becomes simply a secret slush fund from Homeland Security to Interior, and Congress has no idea or clue on how this money we are putting into Homeland Security's budget is being used.

Let me give you a specific example. Border Patrol wanted to put surveillance towers on a strategic location on the Arizona border. Unfortunately, the land manager would not allow them in a particular area, so they had to be moved at least 4 miles away, creating specific blackout areas on that particular land situation. Security gaps. It was 4 miles of heavily trafficked area. Then, because there happened to be a bat in that area, of their own sources Homeland Security still had to monitor the amount of bats who may accidentally fly into those towers for 5 years after those towers were put in there, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to monitor and count bats. And if they came across a pronghorn antelope while they were doing it, Homeland Security had to back away, without turning its back on the pronghorn, at a speed no greater than 15 miles an hour until it was a certain distance away from that situation.

We have already been told of situations where mitigation funds have been spent on a species that has not existed in that area for the last decade. What we are trying to do is spend our money wisely. We need to curtail this practice until at least Congress has the ability of completely understanding where this mitigation money is going and can approve it ahead of time.

Madam Chairman, most of the environmental degradation that is taking place on our southern border, especially in the State of Arizona, is not being done by the Border Patrol; it's being done by illegal immigrants the drug cartels, the human traffickers, potential terrorists who are coming in here with no design and no care about the ecology of the area, or endangered species, or anything else.

If we truly want to improve the ecology and improve our environmental quality on that border, you put every dime you can into Border Patrol, you let the Border Patrol have the access that they need to do their jobs, because stopping the illegal bad guys coming across is the only way, the only way we will ever have a true environmental solution on that particular border. So far we do not know how this money is spent. It is wrong. This is indeed the right approach to take on this particular problem.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. The gentleman has raised the issue of accountability, so I would like to call his attention to section D on page 90, and ask him for his assessment of this. We worked this out carefully, as I said earlier, worked it out with the chairman in a cooperative way. And it addresses directly the question of accountability. The Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall submit to the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the House of Representatives not later than 15 days before any proposed transfer under this section, an expenditure plan that describes in detail the actions proposed to be taken with the amounts transferred.

Does that not meet the gentleman's standards of accountability?

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. It sounds nice on paper, but it doesn't work in reality. You do not know where that money is being spent. The mitigation money is not going to the area where the mitigation needs to be done.

Once again, I will tell you, if you care about that environment and you want to solve the mitigation effort, put the money into the Border Patrol, not into this slush fund to move money from Homeland Security into Interior for the acquisition of land and property.

It is unrealistic.

Mr. DICKS. Will the gentleman yield?

The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman from Utah has expired.

(On request of Mr. Dicks, and by unanimous consent, Mr. Bishop of Utah was allowed to proceed for 1 additional minute.)

Mr. DICKS. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. No.

Mr. DICKS. I got you an additional minute.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Okay. You got 30 seconds. Go for it.

Mr. DICKS. Here is what I think we should do. Why not do both: Stop all the illegal immigrants coming across, which would make a big improvement in the environment of the area, but also do the mitigation to protect the species in that part of the country.

We can do them both. We don't have to be limited to one or the other. The gentleman raises a false choice.

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Reclaiming my time, I will try to do this as quickly as I can.

That should be the role of the Interior appropriations, because there is no oversight that takes place here. We have already been berated on how little we are spending on Homeland Security.

Spend Homeland Security money on Homeland Security. Do not create a slush fund that we have created in the past so money goes to Interior. If you want to do it, go to Interior, where the money should be spent in the first place, and do it the right way.

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