Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. KING of Iowa. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of my amendment.

What it does is, it sees that in the underlying legislation there is language that strikes the President's ability to use the resources within the Department of Defense budget to build a wall or a road along the southern border. It would be a mistake to take that language out and--to have that language in there. We need to take the language out and let the President have the discretion to make these decisions. He has a mandate from the American people.

The southern border is such a risk that 80 to 90 percent of the illegal drugs coming through into the United States come from or through Mexico; 70,000 drug overdose deaths; the violence that comes from it; tens of millions of illegal aliens in America, and we have seen unemployment numbers in this country as high as 40 million throughout this COVID epidemic.

So to tie the President's hands and to take away the resources he has in front of him now, because it essentially says, no funds heretofore appropriated may be used either for a wall or a road.

I would say also that I came to this floor and from this very podium in 2006 with a model that demonstrated how easy it was to build a wall on the southern border. It is cost effective, and it preserves our security. This amendment gives the President back the authority to continue the construction of the wall.

Madam Speaker, I urge its adoption.

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