Police Our Border Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment that would remove unnecessary and partisan language from the legislation that is under consideration, the Police Our Border Act.

Let me read what my amendment says because it is only two lines.

Page 2, strike line 17 and all that follows through line 19 and redesignate succeeding provisions accordingly.

Strike the term ``Biden'' each place such term appears.

Let me tell you what lines 17 through 19 say. ``The southwest border crisis created by the Biden administration has made every State a border State.''

Before I continue on, I thank Ranking Member Nadler for his leadership on this issue on the Judiciary Committee.

The reason I read that amendment and the lines that it refers to is that it is really important that the American people know that the situation at our border requires our action. I agree. We agree. The vast majority of Congress agrees. However, if you listen to this Chamber, and many of you all have lately, you would think that this is not a bipartisan issue. Unfortunately, this is intentional.

I want to let the American people in on a poorly kept secret: Too often bills are written to be intentionally inflammatory to divide Republicans and Democrats. My amendment seeks to bring us together, back to the middle ground that we all share because real, substantive, and durable action will need the support of both of our parties.

We know our police and law enforcement need and deserve support. We know our border needs and deserves to be addressed. We know that fentanyl is an issue requiring our attention, but bipartisan action is what is required and what is demanded by us of our bosses. Our bosses are the electorate.

We in Congress must do a better job than to just be simple partisan hacks, political reporting with no chance of ever making it to or past the President's desk. The American people, our bosses, deserve better, which is why this amendment, my amendment, plainly just asks for data on the facts and the facts alone.

A report like the one in the bill that is proposed with my proposed changes is important not only for our law enforcement but also for the American people, as well. It will allow us to take a step toward understanding things such as the estimated dollar amount of all the resources that would be devoted to addressing the situation at the border and the extent to which such resources are not available to law enforcement agencies. It would help us understand the exposure to and possible injury as a result of the fentanyl crisis on our law enforcement. With this data, we can finally address these issues.

As is demonstrated by the way that this legislation was written, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are likely to falsely claim that President Biden is boasting of an open border, but this ignores the fact that under numerous administrations, both Democrat and Republican, the situation at our border has worsened. In fact, this issue is not just about Republican or Democratic administrations, it is also about the Congresses that have not addressed this issue, either.

Record migration to our border, coupled with a woefully inadequate and overwhelming processing system here in the U.S., has caused existing challenges to get progressively worse over time. We know that our law enforcement agencies have faced many new challenges as a result.

This is a serious issue which we must address with serious legislation. I believe if my amendment passes that many of my colleagues on this side of the aisle will find it in their ability to be able to vote for the underlying bill. I would encourage those on the other side of the aisle to find it within their heart to see not everything as a partisan issue.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject the deeply cynical and deeply political option in the current text and to instead vote ``yes'' on my amendment that will enable the underlying bill to move forward in a bipartisan fashion.

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Chair, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining.

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Chair, it is rebuttals and comments like these that I find, frankly, deeply distressful. They are nothing but finger- pointing, and really the genuine politicization of this body and this government. My colleagues are self-defeating in their efforts to try to put the words into this piece of legislation that requires us to assign one single point of blame when there clearly is quite a lot to go around, and it has gone around for a very long time.

By politicizing this issue in this way, it is self-defeating because we have no ability to actually pass this piece of legislation, and so in and of itself this becomes a self-defeating effort.

I believe if my colleagues truly wanted the information that this bill purports to want, if they truly wanted to understand what is causing the border issues and what could be done to be helpful, then they would work with us as Democrats to make that, indeed, happen. We would then be able to pass this bill in the House, and as is the custom with our Constitution and with ``Schoolhouse Rock,'' send it to the Senate and send it to the President's desk for signature. Here we have no opportunity to have this happen.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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