Appropriations Bills

Obey Calls for Funding Necessary to Protect Our Borders Insists Administration Be Honest About War Spending House Votes to Agree, but Will They Follow Through?

WASHINGTON - Yesterday, Rep. David Obey, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Appropriations, proposed a motion to improve border security and fiscal responsibility in the Emergency Supplemental bill.

The motion instructed House negotiators to accept measures already passed in the Senate. One would increase funding to protect our borders with adequate border patrol. The second would ensure honest accounting by insisting the president include the cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in his annual budget.

The House agreed to the motion last night by a vote of 417 to 4.

The Senate agreed. The House agreed. It should be law. But first we must wait to see what the Republicans do in conference.

“What will the Republicans do in conference when no one is looking, when no one is watching?” asked Obey. “Every single conferee voted to support these measures for border security and honest accounting. Was this just lip service?”

“If the GOP is serious about fixing the holes in our border, they will see to it that Byrd’s amendments make it into the final bill. This money provides 1,050 trained, equipped border officials to ensure terrorists are kept out of our country.”

“Unfortunately, some of my Republican colleagues have a long history of voting on both sides of the street when it comes to security. They claim border security is a priority then fail to provide enough funding to help keep us protected from terrorist attacks. They claim to be fiscal watchdogs then refuse to put the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in their budget.”

“If the majority decides to ignore the vote cast yesterday, then what they are really saying is that votes on the House Floor are meaningless. Either the House Floor is a meaningful place or it is a sham, and the real decisions are made behind closed doors, unseen by the press and by the public. To go back on their word would be a further corruption of the legislative process that is supposed to define the House of Representatives as the greatest deliberative body in the world.”

The History:

• After the attacks of September 11th, Obey and then Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young met with a number of security agencies to create a list of top security priorities. They then went to the White House to talk over the priorities with the President. Without discussing their findings, the President told them he had OMB Director Mitch Daniels’ assurances that the Administration’s request for homeland security was adequate and would veto any bill that increased funding over that amount.
  
  
• The 9/11 Commission found that illegal entry across our borders was far too easy. In response, the 9/11 bill (PL 108-458) enacted by Congress in December 2004 promised to put an additional 2,000 border patrol agents on the job in 2006. However, the Bush budget funds only 210 new border patrol agents in 2006 – nearly 1,800 below the number promised in the 9/11 bill.
  
  
• Since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan in October of 2001, the Administration has neglected to put funding for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq into their annual budget requests, thereby hiding the true costs of both wars.
  
  
• Last week, the Senate successfully adopted amendments by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) and others to increase the number of border patrol agents in 2005 by 1050 agents. The Senate also adopted an amendment offered by Sen. Byrd that calls for requests for future funding for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq to be included in the annual budget of the President.
  
  
• Last night’s vote was on a motion to instruct conferees for the 2005 Emergency Supplemental Bill, HR 1268. It stated: “Mr. Obey moves that the managers on the part of the House at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the Senate amendment to the bill, H.R. 1268, be instructed to insist on the highest levels of funding within the scope of conference for Customs and Border Protection, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and to agree to the Senate provision regarding including requests for future funding for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in the annual budget of the President.”
  

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