U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Pushes Through $701 Million in Emergency Border Security Funding

Press Release

Congresswoman calls on Senate to act immediately to approve critical resources

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' fight to restore an appropriation for border security today culminated in House passage of $701 million in emergency funds.

"The first responsibility of government is to protect its citizens from harm. The Senate failed in meeting this responsibility when it voted against border security funding last week"," Giffords said today. "It now is the duty of the Senate to quickly approve this funding before it goes on recess. The people of Southern Arizona must not have their concerns on safety and security shunted aside any longer."

Just moments ago, the House approved the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Border Security Act. The bill now goes to the Senate for its consideration.

"I promised members of the Arizona Cattle Growers' Association, when I spoke to them last week, that I would fight for this funding," Giffords added. "It is important to them and it is important to me."

Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, praised Giffords for her work on the bill.

"Congresswoman Giffords has been working tirelessly for the border security funding that the constituents in her district demand and deserve," said Hoyer. "She refused to take "no' for an answer when the Senate approved a supplemental appropriations bill last week that did not include money for border security. Her tenacity paid off."

The bill includes funding for:

* 1,200 additional Border Patrol agents;

* 500 more Customs and Border Protection officers at ports;

* Improved tactical communications along the Southwestern border;

* Three permanent Border Patrol forward operating bases;

* $50 million for Operation Stonegarden grants to support local law enforcement activities on the border;

* Two additional unmanned aircraft systems;

* $30 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities, and

* $201 million for the Department of Justice to hire more agents for the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI and to hire additional prosecutors.

Giffords sponsored the legislation in response to last week's Senate action to strip the $701 million in border security funding from an appropriations bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The border security funding had been included when the House approved the appropriations bill earlier this month in a 239-to-182 vote. The emergency funding for border security was added to the bill after Giffords secured the support of 50 of her colleagues to request that House appropriations leaders approve the money.

After the Senate rejection, Giffords worked with Rep. David Price of North Carolina, chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, to introduce emergency appropriation legislation solely for border security.

In a speech earlier today on the floor of the House, Giffords thanked Price for "standing up against the narco-terrorists and showing Americans that this Congress is serious about border security."

Price previously participated in one of a series of regularly scheduled border security conference calls that Giffords holds with Southern Arizona ranchers to hear their concerns and update them on congressional action to improve border security.

Giffords also told her colleagues, "Residents in my district are fed-up. They are tired of the break-ins, thefts, threats of violence and trash caused by the smuggling of drugs and people across their land every day."

Giffords added, "We have entered a new phase of the border security problem and it is causing great fear among residents along the U.S.-Mexico border. … Border security is national security. A safe border helps make our whole nation more secure."

After the House today approved the emergency border security funding, Giffords noted that several senators, in voting last week to strip the funds, said they did so because it was attached to an emergency appropriations bill that provided $32.8 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Those senators said unrelated domestic programs should not be attached to funding for these two critical military operations," Giffords said. "I disagreed with that reasoning. To me national security means border security. Now, with passage of this bill, senators will have a clear choice. Do they support border security or do they not?"

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