Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. Chair, I rise to offer amendment No. 10 to H.R. 4367, the Homeland Security appropriations bill for fiscal year 2024.

Amendment No. 10 will increase the amount of funds withheld from the Office of the Secretary of DHS if it does not submit the ``State of the Border'' report and the report on detention facilities by the designated time required by law.

Agencies have a strong and problematic tendency to ignore or loosely follow congressionally mandated reports. This amendment would put pressure on DHS to provide these reports in a timely manner.

With the ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, it is vital that Congress receives accurate and up-to-date information from the agencies.

A cornerstone of any Nation is its boundaries. A border defines where one government ends and another begins. It denotes the separation between two distinct peoples, cultures, and languages. Without a border, we have no nation, no sovereignty.

In the first half of September alone--that is only 2 weeks--U.S. border authorities had more than 142,000 encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border. Fentanyl seizures at the border increased 164 percent from 2020 to 2022. This year, there have been over 21,000 pounds of fentanyl confiscated. We have had over 110,000 overdose deaths just this last year.

As an ER doctor who treated overdoses every shift last year, and somebody who could not revive four of my patients from an overdose, I take this very personally.

This isn't the only public health consequence of an open border. Whether it is tuberculosis, measles, COVID, which many of the members from the opposing party seem to be so concerned about, there is no way to ensure that those who are crossing the border do not bring these diseases into our country. This doesn't even address the chronic problems such as congestive heart failure, emphysema, kidney failure, cancer, which these patients will come to the ER for and you will wait behind them in order to pay their bills.

The Biden administration has ignored the rule of law and refused to secure our border. Not only will President Biden not do what is necessary to stop the flow of migrants and drugs but encourages problems by using humanitarian parole as a loophole to bring in up to 30,000 migrants each month from Central and South America.

Many of those individuals crossing the border are coming to make a better life for themselves. However, too many of them have ties to terrorist organizations and dangerous criminal cartels.

Worst yet, the Biden administration has lost count of 85,000 children. Our open border is giving the child exploitation industry a huge boost.

We must secure the southern border. This is not just a bipartisan problem and not just a bicameral problem. It is an American problem.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support amendment No. 10 for better accountability of DHS to provide Congress with the information needed to make the right decisions for America.

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Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. Chair, I understand that he would get us the report. I want a timely report, an accurate report, and I want it as we agreed.

The one thing we have noticed is that agencies react very well when we take away their money when they don't do what they are supposed to do.

We cannot make the right decisions and the right arguments in front of the American public unless we have complete and accurate information.

This is just another tool to encourage the agency to do what they are already obligated to do for us anyway. That should be a bipartisan appeal to do the right thing and to be punished if they do the wrong thing.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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