On the recordDecember 20, 2018
I hope my colleagues will join me tonight in voting for this important bill to keep our word to the American people. Keeping our word to our constituents is one of our most important responsibilities, and the President and those of us who ran to secure the southern border promised that we would see this wall built in those parts of the border where it makes sense. We are relying on the good judgment of our sector chiefs down on the border to tell us whether a fence makes the most sense or a wall or perhaps a weir dam in places on the Rio Grande River where you simply dam up the water. Where the local sector chief believes that is probably the best way to secure the border, we are going to follow that recommendation. But this $5 billion that is set aside in this bill for construction of border fencing and a wall is consistent with what the full Appropriations Committee did this summer. We debated this extensively, Mr. Speaker. We all talked about this. This is not a new number. This is something that the full committee voted on and approved when the Appropriations Committee voted the Homeland Security bill out of committee this summer. This is consistent with what the committee did. This keeps our word to our constituents, and we are also keeping our word to those Americans who suffered as a result of the disasters in California with the wildfires and the flooding that occurred from the hurricanes. Mr.…
