On the recordFebruary 26, 2019
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Missouri is exactly right. It is the statutes that allow this President to do this. The statutes don't provide for national emergencies on climate change. They don't allow for national emergencies on gun violence. But they do allow it in terms of this particular issue. The President is exactly right. There is a crisis at the border, Mr. Speaker. But not only this President recognizes it. The previous President, Obama, in 2014, did as well when he requested $3.7 billion in emergency spending to secure the border. Where was the outrage then? Where was the outrage from my colleagues across the aisle? President Obama even went further to say that we needed to secure our border to deter both adults and children from the dangerous journey that they embarked on. Where was the outrage across the aisle then, Mr. Speaker? It was not there. Keeping criminals, human traffickers, and drug smugglers away from our communities is paramount. {time} 1545 Yes, indeed, we do have an opioid problem. We have actually appropriated billions of dollars to address that. And yet, somehow, the drugs flowing across our southern border are not a crisis? Again, President Obama seemed to agree with this and declared a national emergency for transnational criminal organizations, specifically calling out Mexico's Los Zetas gang, and provided more authority for ICE to actually combat that; a national emergency. Where was the outrage across the aisle then?…





