House funding bill aims to ‘take away the wake-up call’ at DHS and restart border wall construction

A member of the House Appropriations Committee said the House Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill is focused on border security — particularly resuming construction of the border wall — to combat the ongoing crisis at the southern border, as well as reducing spending and eliminating “wake-ups”). ” funding sources.

“We said we would do two things: We would cut spending and we would suppress woke,” Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital in an interview this week.

The DHS appropriations bill includes a series of Republican border priorities, including increasing funding by more than $2 billion for wall construction along the southern border, and would require the agency to allocate the funds necessary for its construction within 120 days. It should move forward next week.

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The Trump-era wall project was scrapped by the Biden administration, although some construction is still underway due to the language of appropriations bills approved under the Trump administration. Zinke made clear that this remains a top priority for Republicans in this legislation.

“People ask me, ‘What does an invoice look like?’ I said, “Well, basically, it’s about 32 feet tall and about 600 miles long. That’s what it looks like.”.'”

It would also fund 22,000 Border Patrol agents and fund border security technology to the tune of $228 million.

“You have more money going to the men guarding the wall. Those are our Border Patrol professionals, because, you know, they’re having trouble recruiting and that sort of thing, so that puts more money into people who work.” the wall and then increase the technology around the wall,” he said.

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This would include autonomous surveillance towers and tactical aerostats – the administration grounded these aerostats last year. Furthermore, this would finance ICE to the tune of nearly $10 billion.

He also highlighted language that would prevent funding for “gender-affirming care” for illegal immigrants in detention and diversity, equality and inclusion programs and would add restrictions on programs that include critical theory of the race.

The bill will be open to amendments, among which a number of Republicans have proposed a number of hard-hitting amendments, including cutting Secretary of State Alejandro Mayorkas’ salary and defunding “sanctuary” cities. Zinke said he expects the bill to stay roughly the same after the amendment process.

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“There may be some additions, subtractions, but I think the core and thrust of the bill will remain the same,” he said. “I think it’s a good bill. And if you’re a conservative, you know, I think you want to cut spending and do away with alarm clocks. And that’s exactly what all these appropriations bills do .”

Zinke doesn’t expect the Democratic-controlled Senate to give much thought to the bill that ultimately makes it out of the lower chamber. He was blunt in his assessment of the Upper House.

“Looking at what the Senate passed, I don’t think the Senate will like our bill at all…the Senate, in many ways, I think, is too old and too fat to change.“

The bill comes amid a looming threat of a shutdown if the government is not funded beyond September 30. Lawmakers have until then to fund the government or pass a short-term stopgap resolution. Zinke says it’s up to the House to do its job in passing its appropriations bills, and then it’s in the hands of the Senate.

“We need to get two, three or four credits, and that’s enough to begin the reconciliation process and get the bills in shape when they become law. But if the Senate doesn’t pass them, the shutdown will be squarely in their lap , because we will do our job.”

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He also highlighted the importance of the appropriations process over tools such as continuing resolutions.

“These firewalls that we’ve built over time, the continuing, mandatory and discretionary resolutions, all these clever terms, I think, have taken us away from our primary duty of appropriations, and these are conveniences that have allowed Congress to clear all these years,” he said. said.

“And now we get to the one-inch line. I don’t think we can punt anymore. We have to make the tough decision.”