Thread: Border funding bill loses steam in Congress

Susan Davis, USA TODAY 6:30 p.m. EDT September 4, 2014

WASHINGTON —The White House request in July for $3.7 billion in emergency spending to deal with a surge of undocumented minors has fallen to the wayside and may not get a vote at all as lawmakers return to Capitol Hill for a three-week legislative sprint before Election Day.

Aides to House and Senate leaders and the Appropriations committees said the number of undocumented minors at the border has been dropping and existing funds are likely to cover the immediate needs. The aides spoke on background because negotiations are ongoing.

The number of immigrant children caught along the U.S.-Mexico border continued to decline in August, according to the latest figures disclosed Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security. Border Patrol agents apprehended 3,129 children in August, mostly from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. In July agents apprehended 5,400 children, while in June the number was over 10,600.

The administration continues to seek to address border issues, however, in the short-term funding bill Congress must pass by Sept. 30 to keep the government running. The congressional aides said the White House has submitted requests for "anomalies," which are provisions to address specific program needs, though they would not disclose details.

President Obama last week indicated there is still a need for more immigration judges. "It would have been helped along if Congress had voted for the supplemental that I asked for; they did not," Obama told reporters last week. "That means we've got to make some administrative choices and executive choices about, for example, getting more immigration judges down there."

The House passed a $659 million emergency spending bill before adjourning for the August break, and the Senate tried and failed to approve a competing $2.7 billion measure. The two chambers could not reach an agreement, and Republicans remain skeptical that an emergency bill is necessary, arguing funding needs could be addressed in the annual spending bill process.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...ress/15093657/

Bulloney.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement was advertising In January for bilingual escorts for an expected 65,000 "unaccompanied minors." The ad was posted on FedBizOpps.gov on January 29, I think. 'Bama let this situation go unfunded so that he could proclaim and emergency which required funding right now. This ranks right up there with having to vote for Obamacare, to find out what was in it.

In the meantime almost all of our own foster children lose their benefits after age 18. Too bad 'Bama doesn't seem to care about American children.

IMO he's having much to much fun creating a phony crisis, to get money for future Undocumented Democrats. Not to mention that he gets to thumb his nose at the American people one more time.
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