Thread: Today -Sessions Amend. for $$ for border fence?!

I just read this. Is it new information? Surely the House will pass this. Does it mean that some border protection will take place in the near future? Help this newbie figure this out!!?

Sessions wins amendment for spending $2 billion on border fence

The Associated Press
Last Updated:August 02. 2006 3:10PM
Published: August 02. 2006 3:10PM

WASHINGTON


Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions won an amendment to a defense appropriations bill Wednesday to spend nearly $2 billion on a 370-mile fence and 461 miles of vehicle barriers along the U.S. border with Mexico.

The Senate adopted the Republican's amendment 94-3.

"That is not a small amount of money, but ... we ought to be able to follow through on spending a couple of billion dollars on a commitment we've made" to secure the border, Sessions said of the $1.8 billion cost of the amendment. "Fencing is a proven approach."

Sessions won authorization for the project in an amendment to the Senate's immigration bill that passed in May. But he failed just last month to attach a an amendment to the homeland security appropriations bill to pay for it. This time, the measure passed easily because lawmakers more clearly identified a contingency budget authorization for the spending, an aide said.

Once passed, the bill would be subject to conference negotiations with the House, where leaders have expressed support for border fencing but have not yet included money for the project in appropriations bills.

I hate to be the pesimistic one, but I'll believe the money actually went through when I see this new fence being built.

Someone should read the fine print to make sure that there's not also an amendment to provide $1 billion worth of wirecutters to Mexico.

I thought the Senate also said that we can't build a fence without Mexico's approval.

Got this from his website. Doesn't it look like it amends the Senate immigration bill?

http://sessions.senate.gov/pressapp/rec ... ?id=260831

Press Release of Senator Sessions
Senate Approves Sessions’s Amendment To Fund Construction Of A Border Fence


Wednesday, August 2, 2006



WASHINGTON – The United States Senate today approved an amendment offered by U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) that would fund 370 miles of triple-layered fencing and 461 miles of vehicle barriers along the nation’s southwest border.
Sessions successfully amended the Senate immigration bill, passed last May, to authorize construction of the fencing and vehicle barriers, but today’s vote would insure that money is actually appropriated to pay for the border security measures.

Sessions’s amendment to the Fiscal Year 2007 defense appropriations bill, which passed today by a vote of 94 to 3, would increase the National Guard’s budget by $1.8 billion to build the fencing and vehicle barriers. Under President Bush’s Operation Jumpstart, more than 6,000 Guard members are already assisting the Border Patrol. Among their duties is to help the Border Patrol build infrastructure, including fencing, roads and lighting along the border.

The money would come from an $86.3 billion emergency contingency fund that was included in the FY 2007 budget resolution.

“If we don’t use the emergency funds provided in the budget for this purpose, they will get used for something else,” Sessions said in floor remarks. “The Senate has already voted overwhelmingly, 83 to 16, to approve construction of physical barriers along the southwest border. We missed the chance to fund the barrier in the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill, so with this vote we can actually say to our constituents that we followed through with the funding, that we walked the walk as well as talked the talk.”

Under Sessions’s amendment to the Senate immigration bill, the Department of Homeland Security would determine the locations of the 370 miles of fencing and 461 miles of vehicle barriers.

"By passing my amendment today, we are sending a signal that we are serious about stopping the flow of illegal immigrants over the border,” Sessions said. “The construction of more fencing and vehicle barriers will greatly enhance border enforcement and it will pay for itself many, many times over. A border fence, combined with National Guard forces, increased border patrol agents and more bed space for arrested illegal aliens, will help us reach a tipping point where the scales tip from illegality to legality. If we continue to send signals like this, that the open border days are over, people will know that it makes more sense to apply and come into our country legally, according to our laws, rather than trying to come in illegally.”

Yeah, well, there are all kinds of fences. Be careful that we don't end up spending a billion dollars on something like this....

Originally Posted by americangirl

Yeah, well, there are all kinds of fences. Be careful that we don't end up spending a billion dollars on something like this....

That gives me an idea. We should spend a little more to make sure that the fences are overgrown with poison ivy, and plant rows of bullnettle in between.

CrocketsGhost wrote:

That gives me an idea. We should spend a little more to make sure that the fences are overgrown with poison ivy, and plant rows of bullnettle in between.

And throw in a little Stinging Nettle!!!

And plant the poison oak just for back up.

And perhaps some rose bushes....