Bush budget scraps 9,790 border patrol agents

[gldstwmn]

President uses law's escape clause to drop funding for new homeland security force
Michael Hedges, Houston Chronicle

Washington -- The law signed by President Bush less than two months ago to add thousands of border patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border has crashed into the reality of Bush's austere federal budget proposal, officials said Tuesday.

Officially approved by Bush on Dec. 17 after extensive bickering in Congress, the National Intelligence Reform Act included the requirement to add 10,000 border patrol agents in the five years beginning with 2006. Roughly 80 percent of the agents were to patrol the southern U.S. border from Texas to California, along which thousands of people cross into the United States illegally every year.
But Bush's proposed 2006 budget, revealed Monday, funds only 210 new border agents.

The shrunken increase reflects the lack of money for an army of border guards and the capacity to train them, officials said.

Retired Adm. James Loy, acting head of the Department of Homeland Security until nominee Michael Chertoff takes over, said funding only 210 new agents was a "recognition that we need to balance those things as we go on down the road with other priorities."

The White House referred questions about the border agents to the Homeland Security Department.

The law signed by Bush had a caveat that went virtually unreported at the time. A summary, published by the Senate Government Affairs Committee, required the government to increase the number of border patrol agents by at least 2,000 per year, "subject to available appropriations."

Democrats were unhappy that the proposed budget used the escape clause so soon after the president approved the huge boost in border agents.

"We know we must do more to shore up security along our borders," said Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, top Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. "The president's budget does not even attempt to meet this challenge."

Some Republicans also were displeased.

"This is an area of homeland security that needs to be ramped up in order to increase surveillance and patrols of our nation's vast and often remote borders," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

A Jan. 24 letter signed by leading Republican lawmakers implored the president to fully fund the new law "in order to secure our borders against infiltration by terrorists."

The lead signer was Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a leader of GOP efforts to toughen immigration laws and anti-terrorism statutes.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGOKB837T1.DTL

[strandinthewind]

no surpise there

I mean is TSA actually fully funded yet

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

no surpise there

I mean is TSA actually fully funded yet

No. It was cut. I posted that article a few months back.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

No. It was cut. I posted that article a few months back.

As you know - I travel alot. You should hear the TSA security people complain about the lack of funding. I am glad W is doing everything he can to make us safer

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

As you know - I travel alot. You should hear the TSA security people complain about the lack of funding. I am glad W is doing everything he can to make us safer

All the more reason in my mind that it points to an inside job (9/11). He's not even worried about it. Doesn't care about where Bin Laden is. I mean, come on people.

[ShangriLaTroubl]

So to make our country safer after 9/11 let's see the list in what we have done to do this :

-Go to war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11

-Scrap nearly 10,000 border patrol agents.

-Get rid of over 1300 of our military in an operation that has nothing to do with 9/11

-Stretch our military to the max so that if someone else was to attack us we would nearly be defenseless unless we left Iraq.

-Cut benefits for National Guard and Reserves

-Lose most all imporant world allies.



Chris