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This is going to cause shock and awe throughout the country. Not only do they cut funding for the border fence, but they add in millions for “emergency funding” for lawyers of illegal immigrants while also gutting a Senate-passed provision encouraging English in the workplace. Un-be-lievable…
here’s a link from Omnibusting linking to the section of the bill
Congress last night passed a giant new spending bill that undermines current plans for a U.S.-Mexico border fence, allowing the Homeland Security Department to build a single-tier barrier rather than the two-tier version that has worked in California. …
“The fact that this was buried in a bloated, 3,500-page omnibus speaks volumes about the Democrats’ unserious approach on border security and illegal immigration,” said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican. “Gutting the Secure Fence Act will make our borders less secure, but it’s consistent with the pattern of behavior we’ve seen all year from this majority.”
The 2006 Secure Fence Act specifically called for “two layers of reinforced fencing” and listed five specific sections of border where it should be installed. The new spending bill removes the two-tier requirement and the list of locations.
What can you say about a 3,500-page appropriations bill that stands more than a foot tall? Nothing good, according to Republicans. But Democrats are spinning the spending bill as a step in their much-talked-about “New Direction.”
House Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri said the bill is full of “misguided” policy decisions: “On one page, for instance, you will find a set of new restrictions on the construction of our security fence along the border; on another, $10 million in ‘emergency’ funding for attorneys of illegal immigrants.
“Along with those, you’ll even find language gutting a Senate-passed provision encouraging English in the workplace. And as we continue to cull through the text, that may prove to be just the tip of the iceberg,” Blunt complained.
Most lawmakers haven’t had time to read the massive spending bill, which House Democrats crafted in secret and released late Sunday. The $515 billion appropriations bill will fund government operations for the fiscal year that began in October.
Instead of passing 13 individual spending bills as it is supposed to do, Congress ended up passing only one. It combined the other 12 into one big “omnibus” bundle. The Senate will take up that omnibus bill on Tuesday.
The blogosphere is brewing up a storm of outrage:
- Captain’s Quarters – Honey, We Shrunk The Fence
- Ace of Spades – Shock: Congress Conspires To Gut Border Fence
- Weekly Standard – Congress Guts Border Fence, Blocks 9/11 Commission Recommendation
- Malkin – House guts border fence
- Gateway Pundit – US Government Continues to Fail at Securing Border
- Right Wing News – Congress Backing Off On The Fence
- Sista Toldjah – Congress screws around with border fence
- America Pundit – House to Gut Border Fence
- Prairie Pundit – Democrats put pork ahead of border fence
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