Amodei Remarks During Floor Consideration of H.R. 8752, The Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2025 (As Prepared)

I want to begin by thanking the Chairman of the Full Committee, Mr. Cole, for his leadership throughout the Fiscal Year 2025 process, and his support as we continue to take conservative Appropriations bills to the floor. 

I also want to thank the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, Ms. Underwood, who worked with us in good faith on the bill, despite some disagreements on policy, as well as the Ranking Member of the Full Committee, Ms. DeLauro.

And lastly, I’d like to express my gratitude to the staff on both sides for their tireless efforts.

The bill under consideration this morning provides $64.8 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, an increase of $2.9 billion above the fiscal year 2024 level.

This bill prioritizes investments that make the border more secure and makes appropriate cuts to policies and programs that we know do not work.

We have heard from the professionals in the field—our Border Patrol agents and CBP officers—who are being crushed dealing with the unprecedented flow of migrants day after day.

This bill supports them – through real policy change, not just words.

Our colleagues across the aisle are content to treat the border crisis as an issue that can be managed – by throwing huge sums of money at the problem their failed policies created.

It. Does. Not. Work.

Our DHS law enforcement professionals don’t want to manage the border – they want to enforce the law, and for us to change course to end the chaos.

For example, our Democratic colleagues want to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to non-profit organizations for transportation and other services that only further incentivizes illegal immigration.

Does giving additional services and transportation money to non-profits reduce encounters or deter anyone from crossing illegally? 

The answer according to the three years’ worth of record high illegal immigration is a resounding no.

So, we cut funding for that program.

Last year, CBP recorded 3.2 million encounters. To put it in perspective, that is more than 11 times the population of Reno, Nevada the largest city in my district, in just one year.

Last year we funded $1.7 billion dollars for tents to process the unprecedented number of aliens that continue to cross between the ports of entry under this administration’s open border policies. 

Has spending billions of taxpayer dollars for processing tents along the southern border just to release aliens into the interior at a rapid pace reduced illegal immigration at all?  No.

So, in this bill – we eliminated that funding.

And in the middle of an election year, the Administration just announced a proclamation to quote “shut down” the border if encounters between the ports of entry reach a certain level.

We’ve been beyond those levels for a while now.

If the Biden Administration’s border management policies and the Shelter and Services program were so successful, you wouldn’t need to shut down the border, right?

The proclamation is an election year gimmick.

And oh, by the way, this Administration gleefully terminated nearly every Trump border-related executive order the minute they took office – should we now be shocked that the border is a disaster?

That is why this bill invests in tried-and-true methods of securing the border that the men and women in the field are asking for – more agents, detention beds, technology, and physical barriers.

This bill makes the following border security investments:

• Sustains funding for 22,000 Border Patrol Agents.
• $300 million for border security technology, a record level of funding.
  •  That includes autonomous surveillance towers; mobile surveillance platforms; counter-tunnel equipment, and a significant investment in counter-drone capability.
• $600 million for border wall because we know physical barriers work.
• And finally, $305 million in non-intrusive inspection equipment and upgrades so we can detect fentanyl at our ports of entry.

In addition to our efforts at the border, this bill includes funding for critical immigration enforcement efforts such as:

• $3.1 billion to support 50,000 detention beds for ICE, which is 8,500 more beds than were funded in FY2024 and 16,000 more than this Administration requested;
• $822.7 million for flights and ground transportation for ICE to execute its statutory authority to remove more than 1.4 million migrants who are still in this country despite having final orders of removal; and
• $60 million to hire more than 250 new law enforcement officers to investigate transnational criminal activity and help keep our communities safe from those who seek to do us harm.

This bill also makes critical investments outside of the southern border.

For TSA, we provide $178 million dollars to speed up computed tomography screening device efforts at the nation’s airports, nearly double the requested amount, so our traveling public will be safer.

As China continues to grow its military, economic, and political influence in the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. must have a persistent presence in the region. This bill expands Coast Guard operations in the Indo-Pacific with additional capacity and capability to include:

• $335 million dollars for 4 Fast Response Cutters to increase deployments in the region;

• $60 million dollars for a service life extension to enable the Coast Guard to deploy another Medium Endurance Cutter; and
• $4.2 million dollars for increased maritime engagements to expand partnerships and exercise the Nation’s bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements in the Indo-Pacific.

This bill funds the core responsibilities of the Department that protects the Homeland.

What is doesn’t do, is fund liberal priorities that further contribute to the chaos at our southern border.

That is how you really support the hard working men and women of DHS protecting the nation.

We need to change course on the border – not through gimmicks, but through real policy and funding changes.

This bill is a step in the right direction.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.