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Senate adds $1.9 billion for border enforcement Richard Cowan / Reuters | April 26 2006 The Senate on Wednesday approved $1.9 billion in emergency funds to strengthen U.S. border security while cutting an equal amount from some Defense Department programs this year. By a vote of 59-39, the Senate approved the amendment to a massive bill that mostly funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and continues rebuilding southern states devastated by Hurricane Katrina last year. A final vote on what is now a $106.5 billion spending bill is not expected until next week. President George W. Bush has threatened to veto the measure because it would spend about $12 billion more than he is seeking. But Sen. Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican who has worked to increase hurricane aid to his state, told Reuters that his "predisposition would be to override a veto." He added that it was still early in the Senate debate, however. The border security amendment would help repair or replace vehicles, aircraft, helicopters and boats used by law enforcement, mostly along with southwestern border. Sponsors said the added border security funds could help shore up support among Senate conservatives for broad immigration reform legislation that Congress is struggling to pass this year. Approving the border security money "helps a lot," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters. He said it would ease concerns of some senators who were worried that the border security funds would not move forward. The funds would be in addition to about $9 billion approved last year for expanded border security and immigration enforcement, an increase of $883 million over the previous year. DEFENSE CUTS Congress has been focusing more intently on border security since the September 11 attacks. But under pressure from conservatives who want to control spending and a White House veto threat, lawmakers chose to shift money from defense portions of the bill. Senate Democrats supported the law enforcement initiative, but attacked the amendment's requirement that the money be offset by a 2.8 percent cut in some Defense Department programs costing about $69 billion. "We shouldn't be cutting funds for our troops in the name of border security," said Sen. Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat who serves on the Armed Services Committee. Clinton and other Democrats claimed the defense spending reductions would cut into important war material purchases, such as soldiers' body armor, troop health care, death benefits for families of soldiers killed in combat and money to train Iraqi security forces. But Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who has voiced concerns about the overall cost of the spending bill, said the Pentagon could aim its cuts at nonemergency "core operations." Gregg accused Democrats of "hyperbole and raising a red flag, which is totally inappropriate to this debate." By a vote of 54-44, the Republican-controlled Senate defeated an amendment by Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada that would have provided the $1.9 billion for border security without cutting any spending. ---------------------------------------------------
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