Border Security and Enforcement Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.J. Res 79, a bill which claims to fund border security, but in reality is just a continuation of the piecemeal approach to funding government operations being used by the House Republican leadership to create political cover for their continued refusal to hold a vote to immediately reopen the entire government.

I support funding border security and appreciate greatly the dedicated men and women who work to keep our borders secure, but I do not support this bill because, in the end, it does more harm than good.

I believe the proper way to fund border security is for Congress to fulfill its responsibility to pass regular appropriations bills. The House passed a full year funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security in June that would provide $40.1 billion more for DHS than the bill before us today.

Using a cherry-picking approach to fund selected programs within an agency neglects other important programs within that same agency. In this case, supporting H.J. Res 79 funds border security at the expense of other Homeland Security-related functions like the Secret Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Transportation Security Administration and the Office of Disaster Assistance at the Small Business Administration.

The fact is that by taking up the Senate's clean continuing resolution and sending it to the President for his signature tonight, we can fund border security, DHS and all the other important programs and services of the government. That is why I call on my colleagues to bring up the Senate CR so we can end this shut down and get all our federal workers back on the job.

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