Duncan Hunter

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 1815) to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2006 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes, with a Senate amendment thereto, disagree to the Senate amendment, and agree to the conference asked by the Senate.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, let me just start off by saying that I think this is a somewhat dangerous thing that we are doing right now. We are responding to newspaper articles. We are talking about an issue that is not within the jurisdiction of this committee, and we are implying in this response that, if we have a positive vote that somehow there has been an inadequacy, somehow people have not been briefed about ongoing operations around the world, somehow there is a breakdown in our process. And I think that is precisely the wrong message to be sending. Mr. Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Hoekstra), who chairs the appropriate committee, the Intelligence Committee.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh) for the purposes of conducting a colloquy with the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Royce) who has been a major proponent for this fence.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goode), my great cosponsor on this.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, a few years ago, in fact in 1994, we mandated the construction of a fence in San Diego California, a triple fence. And that fence, with a basic fence on the border, a Border Patrol road, then a secondary higher fence with an overhang, a second Border Patrol road and then a third fence were designed to stop the massive drug trade and the smuggling of narcotics and people across what was the most prolific smugglers' corridor in America, that between Tijuana and San Diego. At that time we had some 10 border murders a year. We had gangs that roamed that area that they called a ``no man's land'' to the point where Joseph Wambaugh wrote the best seller ``Lines and Shadows'' about the no man's land that existed between Tijuana and San Diego. We had some 300 drug trucks a month crashing that border and running up with cocaine for our children. We built that fence, Mr. Chairman, and in doing that we knocked down the murders from 10 a year to zero. We knocked down the border drive- throughs from 300 a month to zero. We knocked down the smuggling of both illegal aliens and narcotics to almost zero where that fence was. I might say that the great Border Patrol chief, Mr. Sylvester Reyes, stood in testimony, even adversely to his administration, and testified to the sufficiency of that fence. This proposal, Mr. Chairman, is 700 additional miles of fence, and it has a great humanitarian aspect. The first piece of this fence, 361 miles from Calexico to Douglas, Arizona, is the area through which most of the people come who have represented those 400 deaths a year by dehydration in the deserts of Arizona. If we had 400 college kids or high school kids or neighborhood kids a year dying in a lake in a city, we would immediately fence it. By fencing that area we are going to prevent those deaths. We cannot fence it by the next hot season, which will start in the end of May this coming year, but we have in this legislation directed interlocking cameras so we can see people when they come across the border while we are building the fence and we can respond. We can both deport them, and we can also save their lives, Mr. Chairman. The second piece that is mandatory here is the 15 miles on each side of Laredo. Across the river from Laredo is Nuevo Laredo where the drug lords reign, where they kill the local law enforcement officers within, some cases, a few hours of their taking office. If we can dry up that massive land smuggling with backpacks full of cocaine coming across that smugglers' jump-off point in Nuevo Laredo by fencing both sides with a double fence, 10 miles on each side of Nuevo Laredo, and we want to have it done and it is mandated by this bill by the end of the year this next year, we will have done great things for the people of America and the good citizens of Nuevo Laredo. This has a great humanitarian aspect to it, and we costed it out. It is roughly $2.2 billion. That is a fraction of what we spend each year to incarcerate the criminal aliens whom we currently have in massive numbers in our Federal penitentiaries and in our local jails. That is the essence of this. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to mention that Ronald Reagan closed down the border when our agent Kiki Camarena was murdered and the killer was not produced forthrightly by Mexican authorities. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman who is a co-author of this legislation and a tireless worker for the border fence in San Diego.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Barrett).

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. But I am going to allow you to vote ``yes.'' Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I am going to vote against a precipitous termination of our deployment in Iraq.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. And let me make this point: that the resolution is written in precisely the way that I think describes the essence of the publicity that has emanated from Washington, D.C. This is a message that has been sent to our troops; and if you look at the e-mails coming in, I think the question is well described, and I think that it manifests what a lot of people now think, especially uniformed people in the Iraq theater, and it is precisely the question before the House that the gentleman will have an absolute right to vote on; and I would hope that this is not Mr. Murtha's position. He will have a chance to vote ``no'' on it.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, let me answer my friend. This is a letter from an army captain in Iraq. He says in this e- mail: ``I am a U.S. Army captain currently serving in Iraq, and I am shocked and appalled by Rep Murtha's call for an immediate withdrawal. Please, please, please convince your colleague to let us finish this critical job. He is correct that the deployments and service and casualties are hard on all of us. He is wrong about what is demoralizing to us. What is demoralizing is a Congress which no longer stands behind our mission.'' That is why we are offering this resolution. That is obviously the message that is going out to thousands of servicemen around the world.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, let me just reiterate to my friend, he said this should not be about Mr. Murtha, and it is not about Mr. Murtha. It is about the message that has been sent around the world, as evidenced by e-mails coming back in from our troops now who think that the Congress is pulling the rug out from under the mission. Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sam Johnson) be allowed to have 3 more minutes.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/4\ minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley), the chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee and does so much for the quality of life for our troops.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, in a few minutes we are going to send a message to our troops. And for our last speaker, we have a gentleman who knows a lot about freedom. He knows a lot about a lack of freedom. He knows a lot about American resolve and sometimes the lack of American resolve. He has been awarded two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star with valor, two Purple Hearts, four air medals and three outstanding unit awards. He is one of our real heroes, Sam Johnson of Texas.

Mr. HUNTER. Let me ask, Mr. Speaker, we have the right to close on this side?

Mr. HUNTER. We have got only one speaker left, so I would ask my colleague from Pennsylvania to close on his side if he could.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer), chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and who is a colonel in the Army Reserve and a Gulf War veteran.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, the gentleman who spends so much of his time with our Nation's wounded.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I think what we are doing tonight is sending a very valuable message. It is not necessarily a message to diplomats or to the President or even to our adversaries; although I am sure that they will read about it. But it is a message to that specialist in Tikrit, to that lance corporal in Fallujah, to that sergeant in Baghdad who feels by looking at the mass of press over the last several days that somehow we are slipping away from our warfighters. We have an opportunity to do something tonight by very simply voting ``no'' on this question of whether we should leave Iraq immediately to at least cut through that ambiguity, to at least cut through that confusion, and you know, words mean something. Wars have been started because we said the wrong words. Confusion is not something that is good to sow among your enemy or your friends. In this case, even those who may feel that somehow the troops are not confused by this mixed message that is coming out of the United States must agree that it is right now to send that specialist in Tikrit or that lance corporal in Fallujah or that sergeant in Baghdad a clear and convincing ``no'' vote on the question of whether we leave Iraq immediately. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon). (Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)