[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15515-15517]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




MANDATORY OPERATIONAL CONTROL REPORTING AND PERFORMANCE MEASURES ACT OF 
                                  2012

  Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the bill (H.R. 6025) to provide for annual reports on the status 
of operational control of the international land and maritime borders 
of the United States and unlawful entries, and for other purposes, as 
amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 6025

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Mandatory Operational 
     Control Reporting and Performance Measures Act of 2012''.

     SEC. 2. ANNUAL REPORTS ON OPERATIONAL CONTROL OF 
                   INTERNATIONAL LAND AND MARITIME BORDERS.

       (a) In General.--The Secretary of Homeland Security shall 
     submit to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of 
     Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and 
     Governmental Affairs of the Senate, as part of the Department 
     of Homeland Security's Annual Performance Report, an annual 
     report on the number of miles of the international land and 
     maritime border between the United States and Canada and the 
     United States and Mexico that are under operational control 
     of the Department, cumulatively and by sector.
       (b) Estimates of Unlawful Entries.--Each report under 
     subsection (a) shall include the estimated number of unlawful 
     entries between ports of entry along the international land 
     and maritime borders of the United States during the period 
     covered by the report, determined using all available sources 
     of data.
       (c) Independent Evaluation.--The Secretary of Homeland 
     Security shall make available to the Government 
     Accountability Office the data and methodology used to 
     compile the statistics used in preparing each report under 
     subsection (a), to ensure the suitability and statistical 
     validity of such data and methodology.
       (d) Terminology and Methodology.--Except as provided in 
     subsection (e), for purposes of consistent usage of 
     terminology and methodology in the annual reports required 
     under subsection (a), the Secretary of Homeland Security 
     shall use the methodology used to measure such operational 
     control in accordance with the Department's Annual 
     Performance Reports for each of fiscal years 2008 through 
     2010.
       (e) Alternate Terminology and Methodology.--The Secretary 
     of Homeland Security shall use the terminology and 
     methodology described in subsection (d) until such time as an 
     alternate terminology and methodology is--
       (1) required by an Act of Congress; or
       (2) certified as suitable and statistically valid by a 
     Department of Energy National

[[Page 15516]]

     Laboratory with prior expertise in border security.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
Michigan (Mrs. Miller) and the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. 
Thompson) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Michigan.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend 
their remarks and include any extraneous material on the bill under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Michigan?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as 
I might consume.
  Among the enumerated powers of the Constitution, providing for the 
common defense is, in my mind, the most important responsibility of 
this Congress. A key part of the common defense is ensuring that we 
secure our Nation's borders, and in the coming months, determining how 
to measure progress along the thousands of miles--north, south, and 
coastal--will be absolutely crucial.
  H.R. 6025, the Mandatory Operational Control Reporting and 
Performance Measures Act of 2012, requires that the Department of 
Homeland Security resume reporting miles of the border under 
operational control and provide an estimate of the number of unlawful 
entries between ports of entry.
  For years, we relied on operational control as a proxy for border 
security. It really became sort of the de facto term of art that 
indicated how much or how little of the border the Border Patrol could 
effectively control. But at last count, only 44 percent of the 
southwest border was under operational control, and less than 2 percent 
of the northern border was adequately secured.
  I'm not quite sure how we can go from having less than half of the 
border under operational control to get to the current thinking that 
the border is more secure than ever, as the Secretary of Homeland 
Security has said, without having a legitimate way to measure border 
security.
  In 2010, the Department of Homeland Security stopped reporting the 
number of miles of border under operational control with the promise of 
a new, more holistic measure of border security called the Border 
Condition Index. Nearly 3 years later, we're still waiting for the 
introduction of that measure without any idea if it will ever be used.
  It's time for the Department to provide a suitable measure that 
adequately captures the security situation on the border, whether that 
is the Border Condition Index or something else. Until then, the 
Department should resume reporting miles under operational control.
  To ensure that the numbers DHS gives us are sound, this bill, Mr. 
Speaker, requires that the Department give the Government 
Accountability Office access to the operational control numbers for 
third-party verification.
  I fully understand that the leadership of the Department believes 
operational control, as it is currently configured, is not the right 
measure to describe security at the border. So I think we are all 
really open to new, more robust standards if it supplements operational 
control and better describes the level of security at our borders. But 
we can't just take this administration's word for it that the border is 
more secure than ever without some agreed upon standard.
  To that point, I'm not sure that we should automatically assume that 
any new measure stacks up against operational control. With an issue 
this important, we can't just change the rules if we don't like the 
results.
  Under this bill, the use of anything other than operational control 
to describe the security along the border must be vetted by a national 
laboratory with prior expertise in border security. Validation by a 
third party to ensure it accurately measures security along the border 
boils down to this: trust, but verify.
  In testimony, the Government Accountability Office has been clear 
that the use of apprehensions of aliens at or near the border as a 
proxy for border security is, at best, incomplete. It tells us that we 
are catching lots of people, but it doesn't answer the most important 
question: How effective are we at keeping the drug cartels, human 
traffickers, and others from crossing our borders at will?
  H.R. 6025 asks the Department to address this issue with an estimate 
of the number of unlawful entries between ports of entry so that the 
American people can put the apprehension numbers in the proper context 
and can stack apprehensions against the number of people who 
successfully cross the border illegally.

                              {time}  1640

  Mr. Speaker, the men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. 
Customs and Border Protection have a very difficult job, and I 
certainly want to thank them, as I'm sure we all do, for the very hard 
work that they do in some very demanding conditions to keep secure our 
Nation.
  How we determine or measure what a secure border looks like has been 
the subject of a lot of debate, but the fact remains that the Congress 
and the American people should have a verifiable way to determine if we 
are making progress along the border.
  I ask my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation, and I 
reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 
6025, the Mandatory Operational Control Reporting and Performance 
Measures Act of 2012, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  The bill before the House today would require the Secretary of 
Homeland Security to report annually to the relevant congressional 
committee on the number of miles of our international land and maritime 
borders that are under operational control and, number two, the 
estimated number of unlawful entries between ports of entry along our 
international land and maritime borders.
  The Department of Homeland Security already tracks much of this data, 
and I have no objections to it being provided to Congress in our effort 
to better secure our borders.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I thought I had another 
speaker, but I do not see him here. If the gentleman from Mississippi 
has no further speakers, I am prepared to close.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. I have no further speakers.
  Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I would just ask my colleagues 
to support this legislation that moves us toward a more full 
understanding of the security situation along the border.
  With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, as I have no further 
speakers, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6025, a bill to 
require the Department of Homeland Security to resume reporting 
operational control as a measure of border security.
  I thank the gentlelady from Michigan and her staff for working with 
me on this bill and for bringing it to the floor today.
  As part of the 2004 Border Strategy, the Border Patrol has been 
reporting miles of the border under operational or effective control 
and included it in its annual performance reporting.
  However, as of fiscal year 2010, the metric has no longer been 
reported, with the Department instead relying on reporting 
apprehensions which tell only a part of what's happening at the border 
and planning for the yet to be rolled out ``Border Condition Index.''
  In fact, the Department's recently released 2012-2016 Border Strategy 
makes no reference to operational control or any other readily 
reportable metrics to evaluate border security.
  Far be it from me to ascribe a motive to the situation the 
Administration has created regarding the border security metrics they 
are or are not employing, but it certainly looks like they would simply 
prefer to ignore data that

[[Page 15517]]

doesn't support their ``border is safer than ever'' narrative.
  Sadly, for those living in border communities, there is some daylight 
between that narrative and reality and for that reason I urged the 
Department to resume using operational control during this year's 
appropriations process.
  In speaking with Arizonans making their living on the border, I 
continue to hear story after story of break-ins, run-ins with armed 
groups crossing the border, and other dangerous situations.
  In recent days much has been made about apparent momentum that is 
building towards Congress finding solutions to the problems created by 
our broken immigration system.
  I have said it before and I'll say it again: there is little hope of 
the American public--particularly in border communities--trusting the 
Federal Government to deal with the many pressing immigration issues if 
we cannot get it right when it comes to border security.
  There is simply no tackling immigration reform without achieving 
operational control of our southern border, and the Federal Government 
can't achieve operational control if they can't define it.
  This legislation is simple; it would direct the Department to resume 
reporting operational control exactly as they had been previously.
  If Congress and the Administration are in indeed serious about 
getting about the business of addressing the issue of border security, 
the successful passage of this common-sense and noncontroversial bill 
is the least we can do.
  I urge adoption of H.R. 6025.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to debate H.R. 
6025, the ``Mandatory Operational Control Reporting and Performance 
Measures Act of 2012,'' which provides for annual reports to Congress 
from the Secretary of Homeland Security on the status of operational 
control of the international land and maritime borders of the United 
States, as well as, unlawful entries through those borders.
  As a Ranking Member of Homeland Security Committee Transportation 
Subcommittee, I recognize the essential role that the Committee and 
this Congress play in securing our borders from terrorism, drug 
trafficking, and illegal immigration. This goal involves the 
substantial efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement, as 
well as Congressional creation of effective border policy. I recognize 
that this bill seeks to provide additional information to Congress that 
will be helpful to that process going forward.
  Section 2 of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 requires the Secretary of 
Homeland Security to ``take all actions the Secretary determines 
necessary and appropriate to achieve and maintain operational control 
over the entire international land and maritime border of the United 
States.'' The section defines operational control to mean ``the 
prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including 
entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, 
narcotics, and other contraband.''
  As the Representative for the 18th Congressional District in Houston, 
Texas, border security and integrity are of paramount importance to 
both me and my constituents. The Port of Houston is a 25-mile-long 
complex of public and private facilities located just a few hours' 
sailing time from the Gulf of Mexico. Its services link Houston with 
1,053 ports in 203 countries.
  The port is ranked first in the United States in foreign waterborne 
commerce, second in total tonnage, and sixth in the world. It generates 
about $11 billion annually and provides over 287,000 direct and 
indirect jobs in Texas. As the port plays such a large role in the US 
economy it is crucial that we maintain its integrity and security.
  H.R. 6025 is designed to gauge the performance of the Department in 
achieving operational control, so that Congress may provide additional 
legislation, tools, and resources as necessary.
  More specifically, this bill will provide for annual reports on (1) 
the number of miles of the international land and maritime border 
between the United States and Canada and the United States and Mexico 
that are under operational DHS control, cumulatively and by sector; and 
(2) the estimated number of individuals who unlawfully enter the United 
States annually, the estimated number of individuals unlawfully present 
in the United States as of the date of each such report, and the number 
of individuals unlawfully present in the United States who voluntarily 
exited the United States in the preceding year.
  Border security and immigration enforcement are enormous tasks 
requiring extensive resources. The Federal Government aims to, and 
must, work with State and local authorities to share the 
responsibilities and the common goal of a safe and secure America.
  Despite the many examples of successful initiative and cooperative 
efforts, there are plenty of legitimate concerns that must be taken 
into account when discussing the best way to ensure that America's 
borders are secure. Significant improvements in technology and 
infrastructure have been made to the efforts the Federal Government is 
making to improve border security and immigration enforcement. Reports 
like the one proposed today are important to achieving our long term 
goals.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Miller) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 6025, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________