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CQ Today Online News | Homeland Spending Bill Set for Floor Consideration

June 3, 2012

 

Homeland Spending Bill Set for Floor Consideration
CQ Today Online News | June 3, 2012
 
The House could consider its fiscal 2013 Homeland Security appropriations
bill late this week, but floor debate might focus more on authorization
issues than spending levels.
 
During its Appropriations Committee markup, Democrats raised objections
to language in the bill (HR 5855) that would require Immigration and
Customs Enforcement to maintain a minimum number of detention beds, and
would prohibit the agency from funding abortions for detainees, except in
certain limited circumstances. Homeland Security Subcommittee ranking
member David E. Price of North Carolina said last week that he plans to
raise those issues again during floor debate for the $39.1 billion bill.
 
³Including these types of spending floors and mandates in bill language
limits the department¹s flexibility to respond decisively to immigration
challenges and is likely to waste taxpayer dollars for no good reason,²
Price told CQ last week.
 
In fiscal 2012, Congress set a statutory ³floor² of 34,000 ICE detention
beds, a level the new spending bill would maintain. The agency, however,
has requested a reduction of 1,200, saying it would prefer to invest in
more flexible options, such as alternatives to detention programs.
 
Price took the administration¹s side, noting that the beds cost roughly
$1.5 billion annually, and that other prison and detention systems aren¹t
given similar congressional mandates. Chairman Robert B. Aderholt of
Alabama, however, has said he wants the beds to stay in, calling the
administration¹s request part of a ³disturbing trend² on immigration that
includes ICE creating policies that give its officers prosecutorial
discretion in their enforcement.
 
³I don¹t see there¹s any reason that ICE could not utilize 34,000 beds,²
he said during a markup earlier this year.
 
The abortion language dominated the full committee¹s markup, with several
Democrats accusing the bill¹s GOP authors of including a deliberately
provocative, political provision. Aderholt responded that the bill was
only codifying what had been a long-term practice for ICE.