Only $25 million of Pres. Obama's $3.7 billion emergency funding request in response to the illegal-alien border surge would be spent in fiscal year 2014, according to an analysis of the proposal from the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO projected that the $25 million would be spent by the Department of Health and Human Services for the housing, care, and relocation of illegal-alien families, not the Department of Homeland Security that's tasked with securing the border.
"CBO analysis suggests that only $25 million out of the $4.3 billion request will be spent this year. What does that mean?" Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) asked. "It means we ought to slow down, and there is no basis to demand a $4.3 billion increase in spending, emergency spending."
Pres. Obama's $3.7 billion request calls for $1.8 billion for Health and Human Services, and only $1.1 billion for Homeland Security. The CBO report said none of the money requested for DHS would be spent in FY2014, which ends on September 30.
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that DHS would run out of money before the end of the fiscal year if Pres. Obama's spending request wasn't quickly approved.
Of Pres. Obama's request, only $364 million, or just under 10%, would actually go to Customs and Border Protection for the operational costs associated with responding to the surge in the apprehensions of illegal aliens.
"This indicates clearly that the agencies are not in dire need of supplemental funding from this Congress, certainly not in the degree as asked for," Sen. Sessions said on the Senate floor yesterday. "There is no basis to demand a $4.3 billion increase in spending, emergency spending. Every dollar borrowed, because we’re already in debt; to spend $4 billion more is to borrow every penny of it. We should not do that until we find out more about what’s happening at our border."
For more information, see Brietbart.com.
