Today, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, in a hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, criticized her Republican colleagues for their double talk on border security. Republicans, McCaskill said, often say that securing our border should be a top priority in terms of the immigration problems our country is facing, but this week House Republicans eliminated $600 million from border security and immigration enforcement.
Last summer, McCaskill passed deficit-neutral legislation to provide $600 million in funding to increase border security, which was signed into law. The new law provided 1500 additional border patrol agents to help secure the Southwest Border. In today’s hearing on the Department of Homeland Security’s budget for the upcoming year, Secretary Janet Napolitano confirmed that this week House Republicans had decimated the funding for border security for the upcoming year.
“Last year Senator Schumer and I were successful in getting some legislation passed that provided for additional border patrol personnel. It’s my understanding that the House in action yesterday…or the day before has cut a lot of that money that we identified as additional resources to be brought to the border. I’ve got to tell you I get whiplash sometimes around here,” McCaskill said today. “I listen to sanctimonious speeches about border security, border security, more resources for border security … then five minutes later the same people that are giving the sanctimonious speeches are yanking out the money in the budget that we need to secure the border.”
Watch video of McCaskill’s testimony here.
No comments:
Post a Comment