When we look at what drug cartels are doing not only south of our border but here in our country, we are allowing this crisis to make these cartels rich to the tune of billions of dollars and the cost of that is in real human faces and…

We are allowing this crisis to make these cartels rich to the tune of billions of dollars.

The department has failed to provide responses to a number of requests from this committee.

When we look at what drug cartels are doing not only south of our border but here in our country, we are allowing this crisis to make these cartels rich to the tune of billions of dollars and the cost of that is in real human faces and…

President Biden's budget request for Customs and Border Protection is a decrease of $1.3 billion and his plan has as many gaps in it as the wall that this Administration refuses to finish.

I am hopeful that we can get on the same page about this.

Why did the department not request appropriate funds to provide CBP with modern, safer technology and advanced helicopters that they tell us they need at the rate of the fiscal year 2024 request?

I have seen little pairs of shoes at the border and know that those children have a story.

the President announced that Title 42 will end on May 11th and the department's own projections, as we've discussed here today, are that encounters will double from today's level to as many as 12,000 encounters daily.

We are allowing this crisis to make these cartels rich to the tune of billions of dollars.

I agree, as well, and when you visit, it becomes very clear.

However, as my colleague from West Virginia pointed out in her recent Floor speech, in the President's budget fentanyl is actually only mentioned twice but climate is mentioned a 148 times.

We've lost over 100,000 people to drug overdoses and 70,000 of those... are attributed to fentanyl.

I can tell you that reducing resources for border security is not the way to go.

Sadly, this Administration's budget proposal doubles down on failed policies that encourage these kinds of tragedies to happen every day.

When we look at the budget that President Biden put forward, it's clear that this Administration is not afraid of calling out a crisis when they believe they see one.

Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.

I want to reiterate my concern. President Biden said himself that budgets are statements of value.