Henry Cuellar for Congress | Proven Leadership for Texas

South Texas congressmen get border security funding

By Jared Janes 

July 29, 2010

Rebuffed in a first attempt to secure $701 million for border security, U.S. House members pushed through a replacement measure in a late-night voice vote Wednesday.

All five U.S. representatives from Texas who represent communities along the U.S.-Mexico border supported the funding, which was originally included in the House’s version of an emergency measure to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Senate Republicans stripped the $701 million for border security and other domestic spending out of the war supplemental bill before final approval.

Calling the funding critical to efforts to combat drug and human smuggling along the Southwest border, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and six other border congressmen pushed for the stand-alone bill that passed late Wednesday without a roll-call vote.

Cuellar, D-Laredo, said border states are at a “critical juncture” as they wait to see whether the Senate will approve the measure before it breaks for a six-week recess.

“I can’t see politically why someone would vote against this,” Cuellar said of his colleagues in the Senate. “We have a very serious situation across the border in Mexico, and this money will help us secure the border.”

Read More Here: http://www.themonitor.com/articles/border-41304-texas-funding.html