Max Baucus: “I wish to address several amendments offered to the emergency supplemental appropriations bill this week. We are…”

“I wish to address several amendments offered to the emergency supplemental appropriations bill this week. We are debating this emergency appropriation primarily to see to the needs of the men and women who are serving on the front line in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's because it's our job to make sure that our troops get the support and the resources they need when they need them. But there is another front line we should not forget about, and that includes the home front. And serving on the home front are the men and women of the National Guard, Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs agents, as well as the police forces who serve in big and small communities alike. They, too, need resources and support from Congress. And while we have a process by which Congress determines on a yearly basis what those needs are, I am not content to just wait and see. I am concerned about the fate of important legislation that was passed last fall that authorized putting more border patrol agents on our front line--which more and more often is up on the highline of Montana, and not only across desert stretches on the Southern border. That legislation, which was negotiated as part of the National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 and signed by President Bush, recognized for more personnel patrolling our borders.…”