Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support an amendment that would increase the capabilities of small and medium law enforcement agencies close to the border to fight the Mexican drug cartels that are bringing deadly poisons into our country at unprecedented levels.

This amendment would prioritize law enforcement organizations within 100 miles of the border that have annual budgets under $200,000 to receive excess defense articles to surveil and interdict drug and drug traffickers.

Here is the problem that we are trying to solve: Cartels have more capabilities, more resources, more weapons, more money than any small border county can possibly deal with. Our law enforcement needs better weapons and better surveillance tools in order to stand a fighting chance.

It is worth noting some of the concerns: that this would create competition for organizations that need things like high-water rescue vehicles. I am from Houston; I know all too well the importance of those assets. It is also important to note that this does not create that kind of competition because what is needed for disaster response and recovery is far different than what is needed for counternarcotics and counter drug cartel surveillance and interdiction.

During my work as chairman of the Task Force to Combat Mexican Drug Cartels, I have heard firsthand of the need for equipment by these organizations that my amendment would prioritize. They are on the front lines of the cartel wars, and we need to support them.

Mr. Chair, I urge adoption of my amendment and reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, to answer the gentleman's question, the need arises from an exponential rise in the threat from the Mexican drug cartels that have taken operational control of our border and flooded our country with poisonous fentanyl trafficking. That is the difference between now and the last 10, 20 years.

As long as this program has existed, all law enforcement agencies have had access to it. To the extent that they don't have what they need, it is most likely because their local politicians are defunding the police, but it is indeed up to us to actually prioritize policy.

The Department of Defense might not understand because it is not in their purview to understand the needs of domestic border counties. That is not within the purview of the Department of Defense. It is up to us as policymakers to say, look, this is where it needs to be prioritized because we are the ones who actually talk to constituents and understand the problem.

I would urge the gentleman to perhaps change his mind and support this amendment because I think it is a good one and timely, given the circumstances we find ourselves in.

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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I have an answer to that question, as well. The reality is, it is often said that in the current border crisis, every State is a border State, every county is a border county, but that is simply not true. It is simply not true.

The fact is that many border counties are more rural, poorer counties that have budgets below $200,000. That is why we set that limit. If they are a wealthy county with plenty of resources, we exclude them from this prioritization. It is simply true that geographically speaking, you are more likely to be dealing with this threat, to be dealing with traffickers and high-speed chases if you are an actual border county, and that is why we put that provision in there, within 100 miles of the border. The fact of the matter is that these counties simply are different from the rest of the counties around the United States.

To the extent that other counties have large drug and crime problems, they are usually big cities. They are usually large cities that have plenty of resources that they can draw from, unlike these counties that are, frankly, drowning in the problems that they are dealing with. I think this could be an easy bipartisan solution to fix that.

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

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