Border Security and Enforcement Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

Mr. McCAUL. I want to thank my colleague and good friend from Texas, the chairman, who knows the border, perhaps, better than any other Member in this body.

We are all here, Mr. Speaker, to try and work through our differences over government funding. I hope that no one in this Chamber truly believes that we should play politics with the security of our borders, our last line of defense.

Yet right now, as we debate this important funding bill, our agents at the Department of Homeland Security--the Border Patrol, CBP, and ICE--are not fully funded, which diminishes their ability to secure our Nation's borders and puts American security and lives at risk.

What kind of message would it send to our constituents all over this great country if we threw up our hands and said that providing for the common defense under the Constitution is no longer a priority? Yet that is exactly the debate we are having today.

As the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, I will not stand by and let politics get the best of us. Our brave men and women on the border in my home State risk their lives daily. Just a few weeks ago, I visited with Border Patrol agents, border sheriffs, and ranchers in the Rio Grande sector in south Texas, which has seen a 55 percent increase in illegal border crossings. This is not just an immigration issue, Mr. Speaker; it is a national security issue. Our border agents on the front line must be fully funded.

I urge my colleagues to support the Border Safety and Security Act.

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