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TODAY’S EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL BILL PRESENTED BY THE HOUSE REPUBLICANS FALLS SHORT ON THE HOUSE FLOOR – WHAT A SHAME!!!!

July 31, 2014

“Bad Bills like this should be stopped immediately and it seems that the Republican conference cannot get its act together today,” says Congresswoman Jackson Lee

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a Senior Member of the House Homeland Security Committee, released the following statement today after the House Republicans failed to bring up a Supplemental bill that would address the humanitarian crisis at our southern border:

"This supplemental bill presented today by the House Republicans sadly falls short in too many ways. The key Federal agencies tasked with responding to the humanitarian crisis on our borders are dangerously close to running out of money. I received dozens of briefings. These unanticipated costs are affecting the core functions at the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services. And although the bill includes modest funding to hire additional immigration judicial teams and help set up new repatriation centers in Central America, the amounts provided are insufficient. The Justice Department and the State Department will not be able to handle their duties without significantly more resources. All four departments need more funding than this bill provides and fewer partisan, immigration policy riders than this bill now contains.

"The Majority unwisely included legislative language to make sweeping changes to current law related to due process in immigration proceedings. The Wilberforce provisions are crucial provisions to protect vulnerable and desperate children who have been smuggled or victims of human trafficking and the Republicans are going to ‘willy nilly' to get rid of those protections. Controversial legislation, hastily added to an emergency supplemental, is not the way to address a complicated problem.

"On July 8th, the President requested $3.7 billion in emergency funding; this bill provides less than $700 million. The President requested funding through fiscal year 2015; this bill barely covers the remaining weeks in FY 2014, setting this House up to do this all over again in September.

"In addition to not funding important priorities, the Majority offsets the funding that is provided with cuts to other programs. We should provide emergency funds in a crisis situation. Lastly, I strongly object to the Majority's significant policy changes to existing law without any hearings or markups. Three quarters of this appropriations bill is straight authorizing legislation. Clearly, many factors led these desperate parents to hand off their children to complete strangers with the hope they make their way to safety here. We ought to consider the complicated policy questions and provide a carefully considered solution. Yet, these policy changes reveal a knee-jerk response coupled with another bill to deport children who are already in the U.S.

"In addition to emergency appropriations, we should consider bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform passed by the Senate over one year ago, which could have helped to prevent the current humanitarian crisis along our southwest border by increasing border security personnel and nearly doubling the number of immigration judges. The two measures we are considering today are deeply disappointing. We should provide sufficient funding to cash-strapped agencies quickly and without the baggage of controversial immigration policy riders. I will not be voting for this bill and I regret even more the consequences of our failure."