On the recordDecember 10, 2014
I thank Congresswoman Norton for her work in managing this bill on the floor today and for yielding me this time to speak in support of it. And I especially want to thank my colleague Mr. Chaffetz from the State of Utah for his work on the House version of this bill. On behalf of my community in El Paso, Texas, and especially on behalf of the Border Patrol agents, more than 2,500 in my community, I want to give you our thanks from the largest city on the U.S.-Mexico border. I support this bill because I do represent more than 2,500 agents in El Paso. In addition, for the more than 21,000 agents on our northern and southern borders, this is an important bill that provides a consistent and reliable pay system that addresses problems in administratively uncontrollable overtime and provides more predictable work schedules for our Border Patrol agents. We ask these brave men and women to put their lives on the line to do what I think is the toughest job in Federal employment, but so far we have failed to provide financial certainty both to those agents and to their families. I want to remind my colleagues that El Paso, Texas, the community I have the honor of representing, which is conjoined with Ciudad Juarez to form the largest truly binational community in the world, is the safest city in the State of Texas today. It is the safest city in the United States, and that is not an anomaly.…
