Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2014

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in the hopes of engaging in a colloquy with the chairman.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the work that you have done on this bill, along with our ranking member.

I had intended to offer an amendment in the hopes that we could move forward with modernizing our pedestrian access at our land ports of entry, but I was held up in the NDAA markup, which is ongoing still.

My amendment would have been simple. It would have set aside $5 million within the Construction and Facilities Management account in title 2 of this bill to begin construction on shovel-ready projects at our land ports of entry, the pedestrian access points.

Mr. Chairman, our land ports are out of date and in need of massive repair.

This is the first step in addressing the massive wait times for pedestrians across our country.

I was recently in Calexico, California, where I saw elderly people waiting in 102-degree heat just to come and shop in the United States. We hinder our economy when we hinder the lifeline of trade into our country. Mr. Chairman, this is happening every day at our border communities throughout this country. And as a Member of Congress from a border State, you understand that all too well.

So I want to ask the chairman for his support in working with me during the conference to ensure pedestrian access points at land points of entry have the funds that they need to be improved so that we can increase our trade at our land ports.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source