Political Quotes

“Thank you. My amendment would strike section 547, which would devote border security dollars to environmental mitigation along this country's southern border. The Border Patrol has unlimited access to private property, but the Border Patrol cannot always patrol Federal land, even if it is a known corridor for illegal traffic, including trafficking of humans and trafficking of drugs. Some permits, which are required to be issued by the Department of the Interior to the Department of Homeland Security for Border Patrol, take months to approve. Others are not granted at all. But when the Department of Homeland Security, our Border Patrol, is given access, Federal land managers force the Border Patrol to fork over money for environmental projects that may or may not have anything to do with the constitutional obligations of our Border Patrol. Madam Chairman, these are American taxpayer dollars. And more than that, they're dollars for border security, which I again repeat is a constitutionally delineated function of the Federal Government. But under section 547, these tax dollars are paying for the unreasonable demands placed on the Border Patrol by Federal land managers--one Department of the government, the Department of the Interior, taking dollars from another, the Department of Homeland Security, for a function that is required in the Constitution by the Border Patrol.…”