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Congressional Budget for the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2010--Continued

Floor Speech

Date: April 2, 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: National Security Immigration


CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010--Continued -- (Senate - April 02, 2009)

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, many of us supported the fence. Many of us opposed it. But one thing is for sure, there is only about $120 million left to complete this section of the fence.

The amendment we have before us--without an evaluation as to whether it is effective, without an evaluation of where the new parts should go, without an evaluation as to whether there are other, better ways to deal with the problem of undocumented and illegal immigration--says vote $2.6 billion whether it works or not. That does not make much sense at a time when we are trying to balance the budget, be fiscally austere.

I had prepared a side by side. Let's have an evaluation by the Department of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol and everyone else as to whether the fence is working. I do not think that is clear. We should find out where it is working, how to make it better.

Another thing we do here, without even any test, is set a double fence--$2.6 billion whether we know it works or not. I urge the amendment be defeated; we let the Department of Homeland Security study the most effective way to deal with illegal immigration, and if a double fence or another thing is needed, we will learn about that in time.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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