Henry Cuellar: “I certainly thank Chairwoman Lowey for her leadership and the staff on both the Republican side and the Democratic side…”

“I certainly thank Chairwoman Lowey for her leadership and the staff on both the Republican side and the Democratic side for working so hard. Mr. Speaker, I thank Speaker Pelosi, Chairwoman Roybal-Allard, Ranking Member Kay Granger, and, of course, all the members, the conferees, who worked so hard to come up with this bipartisan, bicameral spending package. The conferees worked together to make sure that we seek an acceptable funding solution for the different sides we have. Now, what do we have here? It is a matter of vision. There are some people who see the border as a crisis, and I respectfully disagree with them. There are some of us who live on the border who see the border as a place of community, opportunity, where we raise our families, where we send our kids to school, and where we have trade and tourism. In that place called the border, I will tell you that if you look at crime rates, the border crime rate is lower than the national crime rate. I am not going to pick any selective cities, but I can tell you that I can pick any city, and the crime rate in the cities of some of my colleagues are higher than the border crime rate that we have. {time} 2000 We came up with a balance between what those two visions were. What we did is we found a way to provide technology at ports of entry, found a way to balance border security, but, at the same time, provide security. On the border, we don't believe in open borders.…”