On the recordJune 12, 2024
I have an answer to that question, as well. The reality is, it is often said that in the current border crisis, every State is a border State, every county is a border county, but that is simply not true. It is simply not true. The fact is that many border counties are more rural, poorer counties that have budgets below $200,000. That is why we set that limit. If they are a wealthy county with plenty of resources, we exclude them from this prioritization. It is simply true that geographically speaking, you are more likely to be dealing with this threat, to be dealing with traffickers and high-speed chases if you are an actual border county, and that is why we put that provision in there, within 100 miles of the border. The fact of the matter is that these counties simply are different from the rest of the counties around the United States. To the extent that other counties have large drug and crime problems, they are usually big cities. They are usually large cities that have plenty of resources that they can draw from, unlike these counties that are, frankly, drowning in the problems that they are dealing with. I think this could be an easy bipartisan solution to fix that. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time. {time} 1515
