[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 46 (Thursday, March 14, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2397-S2398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        President Biden's Budget

  Mr. President, on another matter, more than 5 months into the current 
fiscal year, the Senate has finally made some progress on government 
funding. Just so anybody listening understands where we are, we are 
actually doing the work that we were supposed to do last year before 
the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30. So we are actually 
dealing with spending bills from 2023 in 2024 because we didn't do the 
work then. So now, here we are stacked up, lurching from potential 
shutdown to shutdown with various fiscal cliffs. We avoided one of 
those cliffs last week when we passed 6 of the 12 annual appropriations 
bills for fiscal year 2024.
  These bills, as well as the six unfinished bills, should have been 
signed into law before the end of September last year. Instead, the 
monumental task of funding the government has lingered in purgatory in 
the Senate as the majority leader has chosen to spend this Chamber's 
limited time voting on nominations. As a result, we had to pass one 
stopgap spending bill after another to prevent the government from 
shutting down. And now the next funding deadline is just over 1 week 
away.
  Unless Congress passes six more funding bills by midnight next 
Friday, portions of the government will shut down and countless public 
servants will be left without a paycheck and the American people 
unnecessarily inconvenienced. Well, that includes American troops that 
will be left without a paycheck. It includes the Border Patrol. It 
includes Customs and Border Patrol officers and other law enforcement, 
many of whom will have to work without pay if that occurs.
  I am deeply disappointed we find ourselves with this state of affairs 
nearly halfway through the current fiscal year. This is Washington 
dysfunction at its worst. This is the basic job of governing.
  I do hope we will be able to make some serious progress in the next 2 
weeks to fund the government and wrap up our work on fiscal year 2024 
appropriations that we should have done last year so now we could work 
on next year's before the end of the fiscal year in September.
  Earlier this week, President Biden submitted his budget request for 
fiscal year 2025, which begins in October. It is no secret that this 
massive document is on the train to nowhere, but that doesn't mean it 
is totally worthless. After all, a person's budget includes valuable 
information.
  Dating back to his time as a Member of the Senate, President Biden 
has often repeated a favorite expression of his father's. His dad would 
tell him: Don't tell me what you value; show me your budget, and I will 
tell you what you value.
  Someone could tell you they care about supporting those who are less 
fortunate or saving for the future, but one will look at the budget and 
tell that you really have other priorities. The same is true for the 
Federal Government. It is easy for leaders to say they value a strong 
military, just like it is easy to say we stand with Israel while 
undercutting our ally.
  I have worked here long enough to know you can't just listen to what 
people say; you have to watch what they do.
  President Biden's budget provides an unvarnished view of what he 
values, and in countless ways--in countless ways--it contradicts what 
he has said to the American people. It is a mountain of reckless, 
burdensome tax hikes and far-left priorities with a $7.3 trillion 
pricetag--trillion.
  Just like President Biden, this budget request is completely detached 
from the needs of our country. There is no better example than the 
President's border budget.
  Since he took office, our country has grappled with a completely 
unprecedented crisis at the border, part of which I spoke about a 
moment ago.
  In 3 years, Customs and Border Protection has encountered more than 
7.2 million migrants at the border. That is higher than the total for 
the entire 12 years of the Trump and Obama administrations.
  When this many individuals cross the border every day, the entire 
system becomes overwhelmed. We don't have enough Border Patrol to 
respond to the overwhelming number of people coming across the border 
every day. We don't have the facilities to detain them for the amount 
of time needed to process their asylum claims. We certainly don't have 
enough resources to return individuals with no legitimate reason to 
remain in the United States back to their home country.
  We need more personnel, facilities, and resources to address this 
crisis, as well as changes in policy, but the overarching issue that 
needs to be fixed is the recordbreaking pace of migration. Everybody 
knows that if a pipe breaks in your home, your top priority wouldn't be 
to buy more buckets; it would be to turn off the water. That is what we 
need to do here. We need to address the wave of humanity that keeps 
coming and coming and will keep coming and coming. Unfortunately, 
President Biden's budget wouldn't make any meaningful changes to that.
  The only way to stop this unprecedented flow of migration is by 
discouraging people from coming in the first place. That is called 
deterrence. The Border Patrol calls it consequences.
  When there are no consequences with coming here through illegal 
channels, then people are going to keep coming. President Biden needs 
to make it clear that anyone who does not have a legal basis to remain 
in the United States will be detained and deported. Those are the 
operative words here, ``detain and deport,'' or ``repatriate,'' if you 
prefer.
  The Biden administration needs to detain every person who crosses the 
border without legal authority and return every single person who 
doesn't have a legal basis to remain in the United States. The 
President's budget, which shows what he values, doesn't provide the 
resources to do that.
  One example is a request for detention beds. That is part of the 
``detain'' element that I mentioned. The administration has asked for 
34,000 beds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That may sound 
like a lot, but with the volume of people coming across the border, 
those beds fill up quickly.
  For example, during the first 4 months of the fiscal year, we 
averaged about 240,000--nearly a quarter of a million--migrants each 
month. That is about 8,000 crossings each day. If we are generous and 
assume that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement actually acquires all 
34,000 beds and that they are empty on day one, those beds would be 
filled in less than 5 days.
  Migrants who are placed in expedited removal and who are seeking 
asylum are supposed to complete a credible fear screening--a process 
that typically took about 13 days last year. If the administration 
wanted to do things by the book--that means follow the law--we would 
need the capacity to hold every single person who crossed the border 
for 2 weeks just to figure out whether they are making a credible claim 
for asylum and then a longer period in which to evaluate those claims.
  To reemphasize the point, that is just to figure out if an asylum 
claim is plausible on its face before an immigration judge determines 
whether it is supported by any evidence. At current levels, that means 
we would need more than 100,000 beds just to figure out whether 
migrants were making facially plausible claims, without even 
determining whether those claims are supported by real evidence.
  As I said, the winning formula is detain-and-deport, not catch-and-
release, which is the Biden border policy. The President's budget 
doesn't provide nearly enough resources for things like removal flights 
either.
  Given the unprecedented pace of illegal border crossings during the 
Biden administration and the rate at which new migrants are arriving, 
certainly they see the welcome mat waiting for them--not a red light, 
not a blinking yellow light, but a green light. ``Come on in''--that is 
the message that is being sent.
  ICE needs a dramatic funding increase for air charter flights, for 
example, and it needs enough resources to return migrants to their home 
countries, but the administration has once again failed to give the 
Agency the resources it needs to carry out its mission.

[[Page S2398]]

  Our Border Patrol and our Immigrations and Customs Enforcement 
officers can't do the job we have asked them to do because the Biden 
administration has undercut them in endless ways. This is hardly a 
surprise. The administration has constantly treated Immigrations and 
Customs Enforcement like a corrupt, criminal group instead of a vital 
law enforcement Agency, which is exactly what they are. Vice President 
Harris, the President's own border czar, once compared ICE to the Ku 
Klux Klan. How outrageous is that from a supposedly responsible public 
servant, the Vice President of the United States?
  This administration has never been serious about the border, and its 
budget continues to prove that. Instead, the President's budget focuses 
on managing the crisis--not fixing it, not solving it, but managing it.
  Rather than establish deterrence by eliminating catch-and-release and 
instituting detain-and-deport, the administration is just building up 
more resources to try to avoid the public relations disaster when we 
see people sleeping in the streets in places like Del Rio, El Paso, and 
Laredo, just to name a few places.
  The Biden administration has asked for $4.7 billion for a 
``contingency fund'' that could kick in when conditions warrant extra 
capacity, but really, despite the efforts to try to gloss over what 
they are doing, this is really about facilitating the recordbreaking 
flow of migrants into our country.
  Once again, President Biden has proven that he has no desire--zero--
to stop the flow of people into the country. Instead, he wants to make 
that process more efficient, as if 7.2 million aren't enough. But with 
his poll numbers in the tank, President Biden keeps saying he wants to 
address the border crisis, but he has no one to blame but himself. Yes, 
this is a manmade crisis, and that man is Joe Biden.
  This is not the plan of someone who is interested in making a real 
and an honest attempt to solve a problem. This isn't a good-faith 
attempt to achieve operational control at the border, enforce the law, 
and deter illegal immigration. Unfortunately, it is just more of the 
same--more of the same policies that created the mess we are in right 
now.
  President Biden may say he values a secure border, but his budget 
reveals his true values, and that is that he does not.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, before I address recycling and composting, 
I just want to say something with respect and affection to my friend 
from Texas.
  About a month ago, Democrats and Republicans joined together here on 
this floor to pass bipartisan legislation to provide for better--much 
better--security at the border and to make sure that folks from other 
countries who have a desire to work, the ability to work, are not a 
threat to our safety or security--that they could be provided an 
opportunity to help make this a better country.
  It was a bipartisan vote, Democrats and Republicans. So I just want 
to commend the Republicans who joined the Democrats in voting for it. 
The legislation has died in the House, at least for now, and my hope is 
that the House will see fit to join us in the Senate to pass 
commonsense, much needed border security legislation.