Rep McCaul’s tough border security bill attracts more than 1,000 ‘citizen cosponsors’
Thu, 2013-06-27 02:29 PM
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) announced on June 25 that H.R. 1417, the Border Security Results Act, has received more than 1,000 “citizen cosponsors” on Cosponsor.Gov, an interactive Web site established by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA).
H.R. 1417 is one of the top “cosponsored” bills on the Web site, which is an expansion of Majority Leader Cantor’s Citizen Cosponsor Project launched in June. The bill was introduced by Chairman McCaul and Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee Chairman, Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) in April and requires DHS to draft and implement a national border strategy to gain and maintain operational control of the nation’s borders.
In May, the bipartisan bill passed the House Committee on Homeland Security unanimously.
“Calls for border security to come before sweeping changes to our immigration system continue to grow louder,” McCaul said, in a prepared statement. “The Administration claims the border is secure, but the reality is far from the rhetoric. The vast public support for the Border Security Results Act on Cosponsor.gov demonstrates Americans’ desire to see actual, proven progress on the border.
“This bill requires DHS to finally develop and implement a long-term national strategy to secure our borders using advanced technology that will allow us to see what we currently can’t and create real measures to gauge progress,” McCaul continued. “The strategy must be presented to the Congress and the implementation plan and metrics will all be verified by outside, nonpartisan experts. The groundswell of support from citizen cosponsors shows the need for this bill to become law so Americans can finally see results – not just more resources thrown at the border in an ad hoc way without a plan for measurable success.”
H.R. 1417:
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H.R. 1417 is one of the top “cosponsored” bills on the Web site, which is an expansion of Majority Leader Cantor’s Citizen Cosponsor Project launched in June. The bill was introduced by Chairman McCaul and Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee Chairman, Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) in April and requires DHS to draft and implement a national border strategy to gain and maintain operational control of the nation’s borders.
In May, the bipartisan bill passed the House Committee on Homeland Security unanimously.
“Calls for border security to come before sweeping changes to our immigration system continue to grow louder,” McCaul said, in a prepared statement. “The Administration claims the border is secure, but the reality is far from the rhetoric. The vast public support for the Border Security Results Act on Cosponsor.gov demonstrates Americans’ desire to see actual, proven progress on the border.
“This bill requires DHS to finally develop and implement a long-term national strategy to secure our borders using advanced technology that will allow us to see what we currently can’t and create real measures to gauge progress,” McCaul continued. “The strategy must be presented to the Congress and the implementation plan and metrics will all be verified by outside, nonpartisan experts. The groundswell of support from citizen cosponsors shows the need for this bill to become law so Americans can finally see results – not just more resources thrown at the border in an ad hoc way without a plan for measurable success.”
H.R. 1417:
- Compels DHS to develop a national strategy and implementation plan to gain operational control of the entire Southwest border, defined as apprehending 90% of illegal border crossers;
- Directs the use of advanced technology to achieve visibility of the entire border by incorporating existing taxpayer-owned Department of Defense technology being brought back from Iraq and Afghanistan;
- Mandates the development of metrics to measure border security progress at and between the nation’s ports of entry to effectively allocate resources and manpower;
- Requires GAO, the independent, investigative arm of Congress, to verify the viability of the implementation plan of the strategy, metrics and certification of operational control.
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