To watch Senator Capito's opening statement, click here or on the image above.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, today participated in a hearing on the budget blueprint for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for FY2022. During the hearing, Senator Capito raised concerns with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the administration’s refusal to acknowledge the southern border crisis, the department’s FY2022 budget request, and the unlawful freezing of previously approved border wall construction projects.
HIGHLIGHTS:
ON THE ONGOING BORDER CRISIS: “Secretary Mayorkas…your first 100 days have been dominated by a border crisis of the administration’s own making. We are currently in the midst of a historic surge at the southern border. There were 178,000 encounters in April, and tens of thousands more entered undetected. Drugs continue…this is a big issue for me…to pour across our border, including record amounts of fentanyl, which are devastating states like West Virginia and killing a lot of our people.”
ON ADMINISTRATION’S REFUSAL TO ACKNOWLEDGE BORDER CRISIS: “This administration continues to insist that the border is secure. The facts on the ground that I just described apparently are not viewed as a security or law enforcement challenge, but a more logistical challenge in processing migrants who arrive with no legal claim to enter into the United States. Additionally, ICE apprehensions and deportations have plummeted, and more criminal aliens are on the streets as a result.”
ON ADMINISTRATION’S FY22 DISCRETIONARY REQUEST FOR DHS: “In light of all of these challenges, the administration’s FY22 “Discretionary Request” for the department is highly concerning. Despite every other agency receiving substantial increases in funding, the Department of Homeland Security stands alone as the only department held virtually flat from last year. This is highly conspicuous thrift from an administration that has already enacted and proposed trillions in new spending… So, we continue to await the department’s plans for financing the current surge, however, if we are facing costs comparable to FY2019, I am concerned that attempting to cover such costs from within the department would stretch the intended purpose of its transfer and reprogramming authorities and inevitably strain the shared priorities of Congress and the department.”
ON UNLAWFUL PAUSE OF BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION: “I must address the border wall construction pause, which violates decades of budget law precedents put forward by the Government Accountability Office. Vice Chairman Shelby and I laid out in detail the legal case against this pause. And while budget law may be arcane, the impact of this impoundment on our Border Patrol agents and our country’s security I believe is very real. Every administration is entitled to have new priorities. It is not entitled to thwart laws that were enacted in previous years on a bipartisan basis. It is not entitled to under-execute on congressionally-appropriated funds in the hopes that it can eventually thwart them altogether.”
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To watch Senator Capito’s opening statement, click here or the image above.