Rep. Calvert Votes Against Speaker Pelosi’s Sham Vote on Ending the Government Shutdown
Today, Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42) voted against legislation put on the House floor by Speaker Nancy Pelosi that fails to address our crisis at the southern border and fails to move us closer to ending the partial government shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has alreadyannounced the Senate would not take up the bill.
Rep. Calvert issued the following statement following the vote:
"The record is clear – Speaker Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Schumer, and most Democrats in Washington have already voted to fund portions of the wall along our southern border. At this point, the only difference is the amount of funding for Fiscal Year 2019.
As a businessman, I understand how financial negotiations work. To come to an agreement both sides need to meet somewhere. I voted for the FY2019 Homeland Security appropriations bill in committee with included the $5 billion requested by the President. I believe we can provide robust funding for the wall while negotiating on other items important to the Majority and reopen the affected government agencies as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, this fight isn't about the border but rather Democrats are using border security as a proxy to demonstrate to their base they are standing up to the President. While they carry on with this effort to appease their political base, a large portion of our federal government remains closed and hundreds of thousands of federal workers are affected. It's time to stop playing politics and get to the negotiating table."
Democrat Support for Border Wall Funding
Last March, Speaker Pelosi and 110 of her Democratic colleagues in the House voted to approve $1.6 billion for Fiscal Year 2018 for over 90 miles of physical barrier construction along our southern border.
Last June, the Senate Appropriations Committee – by a bipartisan majority vote – approved $1.6 billion for Fiscal Year 2019 to construct approximately 65 miles of pedestrian fencing in the Rio Grande Valley Sector in Texas along our southern border.
On January 25, 2017, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) to "secure the southern border of the United States through the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border, monitored and supported by adequate personnel so as to prevent illegal immigration, drug and human trafficking, and acts of terrorism." The EO referenced the authority provided to the President under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.) (INA), theSecure Fence Act of 2006 (Public Law 109 367), and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-208 Div. C) (IIRIRA).
The U.S. Border Patrol began constructing a wall along the US-Mexico border in 1990, with construction of a 14 mile "primary fence" along the San Diego-Tijuana border. In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-208), which expressly authorized the construction and improvement of fencing and other barriers along the Southwest border.
Barrier construction continued at a slow pace until the passage in October 2006 of the Secure Fence Act. Originally introduced by Rep. Peter King, it passed the House 283-138 and later the Senate by 80-19. Senators voting in favor included Sens. Obama, Biden, Boxer, Feinstein, Clinton, and Schumer.
The bill required the Secretary of Homeland Security to build at least "two layers of reinforced fencing" at various hot spots along the border equaling about 650-700 miles in total. Subsequent efforts to pass legislation to extend the fence never made it out of committee in either Chamber.
The Bush Administration began the construction project and the Obama Administration completed construction. As of May 2015, DHS installed 353 miles of primary pedestrian fencing, 300 miles of vehicle fencing (total of 653 miles), 36 miles of secondary fencing behind the primary fencing, and 14 miles of tertiary pedestrian fencing behind the secondary fence. The Border Patrol reportedly had identified a total of 653 miles of the border as appropriate for fencing and barriers. The requirement to build two layers of reinforced fencing was weakened by subsequent legislation passed by the Democratically-controlled Congress and signed by President Bush.
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