Ted Poe: “I thank the Chairman. This amendment takes $10 million from the Office of the Under Secretary for Management of DHS and…”

“I thank the Chairman. This amendment takes $10 million from the Office of the Under Secretary for Management of DHS and moves it to the Border, Security, Fencing, Infrastructure, and Technology account with the purpose of being used for border cell phone communications to help border residents disseminate border security-related information to Border Patrol and law enforcement for the protection of their lives and our border. I appreciate the support of Congressman Altmire from Pennsylvania in this bipartisan amendment. This amendment really is the idea of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords from Arizona. After having been to the border of Arizona with her staff, I learned firsthand the problems that not only Texas and other States but Arizona specifically has with communication when ranchers are on their property. On March 27, 2010, rancher Bob Krentz of Arizona was murdered 20 miles north of the border from Mexico in an isolated area of Arizona. The lack of communications capability made Krentz more vulnerable than he would have been otherwise and complicated the search for the assailants. His wife believes it was in a cell phone dead zone where he was killed and that he was trying to call for help, but his cell phone would not work. Since that time, Congresswoman Giffords has been working diligently on this issue, and I have had the opportunity to work with her on other border security issues as well as this one.…”