Congressman Kevin Brady (TX-08), who is the leading Republican in the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, released the following statement after voting to support the national emergency declared by President Trump:
“President Trump has the legal and constitutional right to declare a national emergency, and I continue to support the President in his efforts to secure our southern border.
“To those who still deny that there is a humanitarian crisis, I say look no further than Texas. We pay the ultimate price for a porous border – and we’ve been paying it for too long.
See Congressman Brady’s recent interview on the Emergency Declaration
“Just last week, I received a letter from the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas encouraging Congress to act promptly to secure the nation’s southern border and its ports of entry. Twenty sheriffs signed this letter, including two from my district – Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell and San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers.
“I urge my democratic colleagues to stop wasting time on show-votes and start working with Republicans to tackle the serious problems facing our country.”
Background:
The Presidents Executive Action declaring a national emergency makes available additional troops and funding for military construction.
- The Administration has identified up to $6.7 billion, including:
- About $601 million from the Treasury Forfeiture Fund
- Up to $2.5 billion under the Department of Defense funds transferred for Support for Counterdrug Activities (Title 10 United States Code, section 284)
- Up to $3.6 billion reallocated from Department of Defense military construction projects under the President’s declaration of a national emergency (Title 10 United States Code, section 2808)
- The Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and the Army Corps of Engineers are working to create a prioritized list of segments and a work plan for the remainder of FY 2019 and beyond.
- New projects could include: new levee wall, new and replacement primary pedestrian barrier, new vehicle-to-pedestrian barrier, and new secondary barrier.
The surge in families is creating a humanitarian crisis and depleting CBP manpower.
- More migrants are arriving at the border in need of urgent medical care, which means border patrol agents are spending less time processing migrants and responding to their border security duties.
- Border Patrol projects a 158 percent increase in migrants needing medical treatment after crossing the border over last year.
- In FY2018, border patrol agents assisted and rescued more than 4,300 people in distress along the border before they reached CBP custody – a 20 percent increase over the previous year.
- Since December 22, 2018, border patrol agents spent about 78,000 hours transporting and supervising illegal immigrants at a hospital or medical facility. This trend could equal more than 150 agents off the line of duty this year.
