Amendment to Add New Border Patrol Agents Defeated in U.S. Senate
by James L. Lambert
July 22, 2005
(AgapePress) - U.S. Senator John Ensign of Nevada offered Senate Amendment #1124 late last week, that effectively would have added 1,000 new Border Patrol agents to improve border security. But the measure went down to defeat.In offering the amendment, the Republican lawmaker said that "keeping our borders secure is the first line of defense in preventing acts of terrorism." The three-line amendment, which was intended to be added to the appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security, read as follows: "... of which $367,552,000 shall be transferred to Customs and Border Protection for hiring 1,000 border agents and for other necessary support activities for such agency ...." The amendment initiative was defeated 38-60 in a vote taken Thursday (July 21).
Senator Brownback (R-Kansas), a co-sponsor of the amendment, issued a statement of the defeat on Friday. "It is unfortunate that the Senate did not agree to [this] amendment. Protecting our borders is critical .... [This would] have provided a larger border security for greater land coverage .... I will continue to work diligently in the future to ensure that our borders are secure." Other co-sponsors of the amendment included Senators Tom Coburn, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Jon Kyle.
CNN correspondent Lou Dobbs believes the vote on the amendment offers the public simple insight to the Senate's lack of resolve in providing additional Border Patrol agents. Dobbs characterized the vote as "a sharp and disappointing example of Congress's failure to address a critically important gap in our defenses against radical Islamic terrorists."
With the exception of Senators Ken Salazar (Colorado) and Barbara Mikulski (Maryland), all Democratic senators voted against the request for funding for new Border Patrol agents. They were joined by 12 Republican senators who did not vote for the amendment: Christopher Bond (Missouri), Lincoln Chafee (Rhode Island), Norm Coleman (Minnesota), Susan Collins (Maine), Jim DeMint (South Carolina), James Inhofe (Oklahoma), Richard Lugar (Indiana), Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania), Gordon Smith (Oregon), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Arlen Spector (Pennsylvania), and James Talent (Missouri). One senator, Trent Lott of Mississippi, did not vote on the measure.
James L. Lambert, a frequent contributor to AgapePress, is the author of Porn in America (Huntington House), which can be purchased through the American Family Association. He is a licensed real-estate mortgage loan sales agent and can be contacted through his website.
