House OKs Price bill beefing up border safety

The U.S. House has passed a bill that would beef up border security in the Southwest to deal with growing violence near the Mexican border.

The bill was introduced by Rep. David Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat and chairman of the House homeland security appropriations subcommittee. It would pay for 1,200 new Border Patrol agents, an additional 500 Customs and Border Patrol officers, three new forward operating bases and four new Border Enforcement Security Task Forces on the border with Mexico.

"With the cartels fighting the Mexican government and amongst themselves for drug, alien and weapons-trafficking routes, we have to prevent any threat of spillover violence and shut down illicit smuggling operations," Price said in a statement.

"Funding is urgently needed to expand the number of border patrol agents and officers, improve our border surveillance efforts, and beef up anti-smuggling investigations," Price added.

It would also add $50 million to expand support for joint state and local law enforcement efforts on the border and would add two Predator unmanned aircraft systems.

The bill was expected to provide $701 million to address the threat of violence along the Mexican border.

Price held a Capitol Hill news conference Wednesday afternoon with fellow Democrats Silvestre Reyes and Ciro Rodriguez, both of Texas.

The border funding was originally approved by the House this month as part of an emergency funding bill. Price accused Senate Republicans of "playing political games with this issue" by stripping out funding for the beefed-up border protection.

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