Political Quotes

“I want to thank the gentleman from Laredo, Mr. Cuellar, for introducing this bill and for his outstanding work on the committee, and also my good friend, Mr. McCaul, for their cosponsorship of the legislation. I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. McCaul. Mr. Speaker, as an original co-sponsor of the Jaime Zapata Border Enforcement Security Task Force Act, I rise today in favor of this important legislation. H.R. 915 strengthens our homeland security by codifying the authority to create Border Enforcement Security Task Force, BEST teams and giving the program the resources it needs. It is an unfortunate fact of life that for generations our border communities have been subjected to crime and violence at the hands of criminals, smugglers and drug cartels. Now with the terrible rise of violence that has occurred in Mexico over the past few years, this threat has never been greater. In response to these realities, the Department of Homeland Security created the Border Enforcement Security Task Force initiative as an innovative approach to combating the increasing threat of transnational crime. BEST operates by bringing together all of the federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that share the responsibility of securing our borders. Under the auspices of U.S.…”