| Washington, DC – Congressman Bill Shuster opposed an amendment offered by Democrat Leadership today to gut crucial provisions from H.R. 1684, the “Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act for FY2008.” Despite Shuster’s objection, the amendment passed 216-209.
“The security of our nation should not become a partisan issue,” Shuster said. “Yesterday’s news of the Ft. Dix terror plot proves that terrorists are here now and ready to strike. Three of the plotters were in the country illegally. In light of these facts, I am amazed that today the Democrats would try to hamstring DHS’ ability to check the immigration status of workers at high risk facilities and strengthen overall immigration enforcement.”
“Worse still, the Democrats’ amendment removes key provisions of the bill that were added as part of the findings of the 9/11 Commission,” Shuster said. “You can’t praise the 9/11 Commission and at the same time refuse to adopt its recommendations. It makes no sense and it doesn’t make America safer.”
The 9/11 Commission said: "There is a growing role for State and local law enforcement agencies. They need more training and work with federal agencies so that they can cooperate more effectively with those federal authorities in identifying terrorist suspects." However, the Democrats removed a provision that would allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection to reimburse state and local authorities for expenses related to immigration enforcement training. Currently, state and local authorities cannot be reimbursed for these expenses, which can run as high as $10,000 per agent per week.
Some of the other provisions stripped by the Democrats’ amendment include:
o Maritime alien smuggling – amending current law to deny alien smugglers the use of maritime routes and enhance penalties for alien smuggling.
o Student and Exchange Visitor Program – improving an existing program to better monitor the activities of foreign students and visitors.
o Biometric identification of illegal aliens – establishing a pilot program for mobile biometric identification of apprehended aliens at sea.
o Eligible uses of interoperability grants – clarifying that emergency communications grants may be used to support not just equipment purchases, but also governance, the development of standard operating procedures, training and exercises, and usage.
o Immigration enforcement – requiring immigration checks for employees at high risk critical infrastructure.
o Authorization of Secret Service and its functions – authorizing $1,641,432,000 – a 17 percent increase above the President’s FY08 budget request and a 28 percent increase over FY07 levels – for Secret Service activities. |
