[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13601]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           GOP STALL TACTICS COULD UNDERMINE BORDER SECURITY

  (Mr. TANNER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, it appears that the Republican majority has 
no interest in securing our borders before the November election. After 
months of debate in Congress, and several speeches by the President, 
including one in prime time, it now appears the Republican majority 
would rather talk about the issue than actually solve the problem.
  President Bush has spent a lot of time recently talking about the 
need for a comprehensive immigration bill. If he really feels strongly 
about the issue, he should call congressional leaders from both the 
House and the Senate to the White House and hammer out a compromise. 
Otherwise, it seems House Republicans are willing to stall until the 
fall, which we all know would make it impossible to pass a bill before 
the November election.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time the majority take border security seriously. 
Since September 11, the Bush administration and Republican Congress 
have severely underfunded border security, breaking their promises to 
fund new Border Patrol agents, additional detention beds, and 
additional immigration investigators. Because of these funding 
failures, our borders are not secure.
  It is time that House Republicans stop their stalling and actually 
come to the negotiating table.

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