Bill Nelson: “I am here to talk about some complex litigation on Chinese drywall. But before I do, this week seems to be the week if…”

“I am here to talk about some complex litigation on Chinese drywall. But before I do, this week seems to be the week if we are going to get anything done to assist the administration with regard to all of these children showing up at the border. It has diminished over the last few weeks. Nevertheless, there has still been an influx that we have all read about. Senator Mikulski, the chairman of Appropriations, has roughly a $2.7 million supplemental appropriations bill. It would be this Senator's intention--and I think I can speak for several other Senators who feel very strongly--that we have not addressed the very root cause of the problem, which is that the drugs in huge shipments on boats coming from South America into those three Central American countries with boatloads of cocaine, carrying 1 to 3 tons of cocaine apiece, have not been interdicted. It was riveting testimony that our four-star Marine commander General Kelly of the U.S. Southern Command pointed out that he, his staff, and the Joint Interagency Task Force that is headquartered in Key West have to watch 75 percent of those boats coming in from the Caribbean in the east into Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador and the Pacific on the west--they have to watch 75 percent of them get through. They cannot do anything about it because they don't have the Navy ships or the Coast Guard cutters with the helicopters that can interdict them.…”