Political Quotes

“This amendment is straightforward. It would reduce funding for the Office of the Secretary by $50,000 and transfer a revenue neutral amount to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection salaries and expenses. This is a nominal cut from the Secretary's nearly $122 million in funding, again only slightly more than the committee provided for the Secretary to spend on receptions this year. I offer this amendment as a means of bringing up an important issue both to Congress and to the Secretary's attention. Let me start by thanking the chairman and the ranking member for their attention to border issues in this bill, as well as the staff's assistance in bringing this amendment to the floor. In the report accompanying last year's Homeland Security appropriations bill, the committee directed the Department to provide a ``resource allocation and staffing model for ports of entry.'' As would appear to be the trend with congressional requests for information, answers to these questions or budget documentation were never provided. The Department either failed to prioritize or simply ignored the request. The committee report notes: As the committee has not yet received the CBP workload staffing allocation model, the committee cannot assess CBP's identified needs.…”