On the recordDecember 14, 2023
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend being here and speaking so passionately and also from experience on this, both personally and professionally, as we just heard. This is exactly what the issue here is. It is the need for partnership and bipartisanship on this issue. This is not a partisan issue. I think that we can all see that. Some have tried to make it a partisan issue, and it is really not. What Mr. Rutherford just explained is exactly the nature of the problem. Both sides should be equally concerned about this issue, both sides of the aisle. I know that is for sure the case at home. At home, you don't see partisan division around this issue. I hear from mayors that are Democrats and mayors that are Republicans. I hear from county supervisors that are Republicans and county supervisors that are Democrats. They are both equally concerned with the situation because we are dealing with it on the ground. That is exactly why, in my district in Arizona's Sixth Congressional District, we get it. We know what the solutions are. That is an enforcement of the current laws, and as was described, the measures in H.R. 2 that need to be adopted. These are the kind of policy changes that we need. It is not just all about resources. Resources are definitely a part of the solution, but resources without the proper policy changes and the proper policy enforcement will be an incomplete solution to the problem. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Valadao).





