Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
April 28, 2005 -- Page: S4509

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished chairman of the committee, the Senator from New Hampshire, as well as the Senator from North Dakota. It has been a lively debate.

I rise to support this budget. The committee has done an outstanding job. I will talk about some parts of the budget and talk about what I hope we will see in appropriations, but in the main, this budget does exactly what the President asked us to do in that it achieves the goal of cutting deficits in half within 5 years from the level he projected in 2004.

I heard the distinguished Senator from South Dakota earlier lament this was a budget that was going to somehow add to the debt service of middle-income Americans. It appears to me it does the opposite; that, in fact, it will cut the deficits in half.

We are cutting the deficits in this country, while at the same time providing for the priorities in spending. We are providing, for the first time since I can remember, a contingency fund for the war on terrorism. The Senate voted in an overwhelming majority to include a contingency fund for the war. In the past, we have had supplementals; and we have seen what happens on supplementals. They become Christmas trees. We are trying to fund the war on Iraq and all of a sudden so many other things turn up as emergencies. This is what busts the budget.

The distinguished committee did, in fact, put aside a $50 billion contingency fund to cover the costs of operations in Iraq. Maybe we will not have to have a supplemental next year; or if we do, it will be later in the year and will be fiscally responsible.

This is a budget that continues to reduce taxes. Every time in the history of our country when we have reduced taxes in a major way, where it could be felt, it has not added to the deficit; it has, in fact, added revenue. We saw our economy start stabilizing when we passed the 15-percent tax on capital gains and dividends, which was a cut in that tax. This budget provides for $105 billion over 5 years in reduced taxes. It assures we have the stability in the Tax Code that lets people know in 2007 we are not going to have an increase in the taxes that have already been cut; that people can count on the 15-percent tax on dividends and capital gains, at least for the next 5 years.

This would also accommodate the sales tax deduction on the Federal income tax for those States that do not have a State income tax. There has been an inequity in the Tax Code for years, where if you have an income tax in your State, you can deduct that income tax from your Federal tax because you should not have to pay tax on taxes. But if you are a sales tax State, you do not have that same opportunity.

This bill will allow--although this bill does not mandate anything because that is a Finance Committee responsibility--the sales tax deduction to be continued.

The budget allows for continuation of the teacher classroom expenses deduction. We know teachers--every one of us in this country knows teachers--who take money out of their own pockets to buy pencils or tablets or Crayons or whatever it is they need in the classroom, or which their pupils need and cannot afford, to make sure they have the tools for teaching. We allow them to deduct from their taxes the money they put into the classroom. We will be able to extend that deduction in this budget. We will have the opportunity to give teachers who are not paid enough a token of appreciation for the job they do.

And finally, it ensures the AMT will not hit the middle class in our country.

In the big picture, this budget is a very good resolution. Thank heavens, we are going to have a budget this year, which we did not have last year, so we will be able to say: Here is what we are going to spend, and we will stick to that spending level.

I want to mention one area where the budget fell short from what the Senate wanted it to do, and that is in the area of the administration of justice function. This function is the area which funds the Border Patrol. The Senate passed $42 billion to cover the cost of more Border Patrol agents and other administration of justice functions. The conference report is $41 billion. It is $1 billion less.

Now, I want to lay down a marker here because it is essential that when this budget goes to the Appropriations Committee, the Appropriations Committee should set aside money for more Border Patrol agents than the 210 that were in the President's budget. This must be done so we can beef up our borders against illegal intruders.

This is not a matter of illegal aliens coming here to work, although that is a major issue in this country. It is a matter of national security. We have seen some very brave people sitting on the border of Arizona and Mexico in the last few weeks. I have to say, these people have shown a commitment and a caring that should be acknowledged in the Senate, that they would care enough to realize that 10,000 people, it is estimated, are coming across the border illegally into our country every day. We are short of Border Patrol agents, and they are going out there and sitting a quarter of a mile apart to try to monitor and tell the Border Patrol when they see illegal activity.

There has been no violence. But it has made a huge impact. It has made an impact on the number of illegal crossings. And it has certainly made an impact on this country to see that many people are volunteering their efforts to care about the integrity of the borders of our country.

But it is not those volunteers' responsibility. It is the responsibility of the U.S. Government to patrol our borders and to assure that Americans are safe from illegal intruders. We are not doing the job. We are not doing the job when the FBI Director tells a congressional committee that people from countries with ties to al-Qaida are crossing into the United States through the border with Mexico. It is a security threat, and it is a homeland security threat.

Now, I do believe the supplemental appropriations that is working its way through Congress right now is going to have some help in the Border Patrol area. I know the chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee, the Senator from New Hampshire, is very aware and has visited the border himself to see what the problems are. So I do have confidence that in the Appropriations Committee we will address this issue. And we must. We must control our borders at a time when we know we are in a war against terrorism.

Mr. President, 97 percent of the illegal intruders are coming in through the southwest border. But this is a national issue. These people do not stop in Texas and Arizona and California and New Mexico. They go all through our country. It is estimated by Time magazine that there are 15 million illegal people in our country, and it has been estimated that it is really even more, probably 20 million.

Since 2001, 1,300 agents have been added to the force. But this is not sufficient to patrol 6,900 miles of border between Canada and the United States and Mexico and the United States. The issue that has recently started being observed is the aliens from countries other than Mexico who are crossing the border through Mexico, and because of a lack of resources, we are forced to release them practically immediately. This again, I hope, is going to be addressed in the supplemental appropriations.

The Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently said:

We do not have enough agents; we don't have enough technology to give us the security we need. We need more agents and we need to do a smarter and better job.

Two groups of Arab males were discovered by patrol guards from Wilcox, AZ. One field agent said:

These guys didn't speak Spanish, and they were speaking to each other in Arabic. It's ridiculous that we don't take this more seriously. We're told not to say a thing to the media.

We must take this issue seriously. The agent is correct.

I believe that we can address this issue in appropriations, and I believe that with $41 billion in this account, which is in this budget today, we will be able to allocate the resources to increase the number of Border Patrol agents and to increase the number of detention facilities so we will not have to release the illegal intruders, the ``other than Mexicans.'' We can do it if we prioritize it. The reason I am speaking tonight is to say we must prioritize it. We must take this seriously. It is an issue for our whole country, and it is an issue we must take seriously. We have the funds to do it in this budget, but I want to make sure it is a priority.

The Budget Committee has done a very credible job. This Budget Committee has presented a budget that will cut the deficit, over 5 years, in half at the same time that we are funding the war. And we have a contingency so we will not have to do it through supplemental appropriations. I thank the committee for responding to the will of the Senate when we voted overwhelmingly that we did not want to fund the war with supplementals. Fifty billion dollars is exactly the right amount to have in a contingency. That is responsible budgeting.

I appreciate what the Budget Committee has done. They have addressed our priorities. They have cut back in nonpriority areas, and have cut back in discretionary spending. I hope that as we go into the appropriations process, we will remember the need for more Border Patrol agents and more detention facilities to address this critical issue for the security of our homeland. I believe we will.