It’s too bad we can’t get hundreds of thousands of volunteers to just go to the border and start building it. Since our government has shown that they will wink at law breakers who aren’t even citizens, surely they could do as much for citizens attempting the only way we can to secure our border. Wishful thinking, I know. But I’d sure like to test it.
The truth is that there was initial funding of $1.2 billion to the Department of Homeland Security marked for border security (but not specifically for the border fence) but the law withholds $950 million of it until the House and Senate appropriations committees approve the design, location and length of the fence. At the estimated $3M per mile, how much fence are you gonna build with ~$50M? Not much. Also, it was only an election year ploy...they passed the authorization in September, right before the elections.
To make matters worse, Congress is still holding this up, and they went on vacation without taking care of it. Bush had originally threatened to veto the defense bill because Congress added so much pork to it. Congress then attached the funding for the fence to the defense bill to insure Bush couldn't veto all the pork they added to this bill without inflaming his base on the fence issue.
Here's a recent article on the subject:
Conservative lawmakers who say the American people need a signal that Congress is serious about cracking down on illegal immigration pushed Wednesday for more border security funding in a defense spending bill.< P> The Senate gave a nod to one of those efforts, agreeing 94-3 to an amendment to the Defense Department appropriations bill providing $1.83 billion for 370 miles of triple-layered fencing and 461 miles of vehicle barriers on the U.S.-Mexican border.
The defense bill is far from final. A vote on the larger spending bill is pending and if passed would have to be reconciled with the House bill.
The Senate immigration bill authorizes construction of 370 miles of fencing and several more miles of vehicle barriers but does not provide funding for them. The House has authorized but not funded 700 miles of fencing.
More shenanigans:
Senate Votes Down Funding Of Border Fence
Democrats Vote Against Funding Border Fence
As a side note, I can't believe the number of people on here that don't know the difference between authorization and appropriations: