Steve Pearce

Mr. PEARCE

Mr. PEARCE. Madam Speaker, the following material are letters I have received from my constituents and other concerned citizens of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona regarding the reintroduction of the Mexican Wolf. Since the reintroduction of the Mexican Wolf in 1998, the residents of my Congressional District have been plagued by problems associated with the release. Not only do ranchers suffer economic hardship due to wolves preying on their livestock, but countless family pets have been lost including dogs and horses. As the wolves become less afraid of man every year, I fear they will eventually prey upon humans. To date, the program has yielded 58 wolves, 20 percent of which will be removed as problem animals, at a $14 million cost to the taxpayers. That is $242,000 spent per wolf. These are some of our wolf experiences in the past 7.5 years. I don't think we have had a decent nights sleep since this program began. 2003--Wolf notes Monday May 19 to Tuesday May 28. Tuesday, May 20, 2003 12:42 p.m. Subject: wolves are back No sooner that I griped to the Game Commission's about the release of our old friend from the Campbell Blue pack, F 592 into the wilderness again that she shows up here again. John Oakleaf called last May 19 about 9 p.m. with the happy news that they were with our cows and calves. We were missing 2 calves since Friday and wolf tracks are everywhere but everything was OK when I checked this morning and this afternoon nothing but tracks. Life gets just a whole lot more complicated with them around. How many times can you say I told you so to the FWS, they can't stop believing that releasing heavily pregnant wolves into the Wilderness will keep them there, it doesn't and it hasn't and it never will. Changing the name just buffalo's the public into thinking there are new wolves out there. The new name for F 592 and her new mate was the Sycamore pack. The only good news is she should have had her puppies last week or maybe two weeks ago and she probably killed them if she traveled this far. Ivy, my 14 year old daughter rode her paint mare up to the top of the hill by the house this morning like she always does and met up with both wolves. She said they wouldn't leave her alone and squared off with her at about 30 feet away. She didn't want to turn her back on them so she shot and reloaded and shot her single shot 22 off in the air a couple times and they finally scuttled down the hill into Turkey Run in front of her. She was pretty excited and not a little scared when she came in. I on the other hand am livid and a lot scared. My kids shouldn't have to be held up by a pair of wolves on a ride \1/4\ mile from the house. Laura. Wednesday, May 21, 2003 1:17 p.m. Subject: wolf update Rafter Spear 5-20&21 We caught them on the cows and calves last evening May 20, 2003 around 7 p.m. and they had them bunched up trying to get a calf out the calves were either crying or sucking, we were just in time. We ran them off all of 50 feet and started driving the cows down the canyon on foot. I left Matt with the cows and the 30-30 and went up the other canyon to check the other cows. On the way, I met Dan the wolf guy and told him to hurry up, the wolves were following Matt and he might just have to shoot one since they are following him so close. I stopped at the house to get a blanket for Miles since it was getting cold and he was asleep in the jeep, thank goodness. I also told the girls to saddle up and go help dad move those cows. Which they did. Over the ridge I found a bagged up cow with wolf tracks nearby and all the other cows were far enough up the other canyon and still all right with no sign of wolf activity around them. I went on to 74 and check the other cattle thankfully the wolves hadn't been there yet. By the time I got back to the turnoff to the house, where Matt and the girls left the cows, Matt was way off ahead on the road home and Dan was parked in the flat near the turnoff to our house with our cows. I picked up Matt and he said to go back and let him talk to Dan. He didn't apologize for yelling at him earlier but let it be known he didn't totally blame Dan for the situation. Dan said he was going to stay in the cows all night and we told him to come to the house and eat first. He said OK. He called an hour later {satellite phone} and said the wolves were in the calves again and he wasn't coming in to eat. By then it was 10 p.m. so I made him supper and coffee and we took it out to him. He said they were all over the cows and calves and howling at him because they were frustrated and he was firing rubber bullets at them. He only had enough light to set one trap though. Since he was OK we went home to sleep because after learning they were in the cattle the night before we pretty much stayed awake all night. Woke up at 4 a.m. finally got up at 4:30 and Dan showed up at 5:15 with some good news, he caught the male about 20 minutes before in the single trap he had managed to set the evening before. Apparently Dan has been improving as a trapper since our Dec. 99 experience with Campbell Blue pack which included F 592. Melissa, Ted Turners wolf biologist, was 3 hours away with a cage so we called our neighbor Jack Diamond and he sent his wife Kaye over with a kennel to put the trapped wolf in. We went back out and the female was still there with the male but not very close, it was breaking daylight by then. Dan gave the wolf a light sedative type drug so he would relax and not hurt himself in the trap. Matt went to check the cows in 74 where I had gone that night and I waited with Dan in case Kaye got there and Dan needed help loading the wolf. She did and Matt and Dan loaded him into the kennel right about the time Melissa showed up, so we sent that wolf home to Sevilletta. I made Dan keep Melissa's kennel in case 592 was caught. The female 592 ran off but I am sure she stayed somewhere nearby, Dan looked around for her and then tried to sleep a few hours during the day they aren't very active, thank goodness. The wolves had run him from calf to calf and canyon to canyon last night and he didn't get much rest I am just grateful it wasn't me but I may get a turn tonight. These livestock killers and problem wolves should not be turned out at all. 592 is the major stock killer of the pair and they were determined to get a calf. Dan didn't let them and they actually howled at him about it. But they did manage to bite at least two calves before he could hit them with rubber bullets which seemed to have little effect. We are missing two calves one since about last Friday and one since Monday but haven't found any wolf poop yet to see what is up with that. Probably won't be confirmed though. One was about a week old and one was born Saturday to a cow that has never lost a calf, Matt saw it Sunday evening and it was fine then. Mad as we are about all this at least we had competent help and we are grateful for that. Why the hell they are re- releasing stock killers is beyond me. It is plain dumb and only makes the program look bad. Laura. Update: wolves at the rafter spear 5-21-5-23 The last few days the wolf story has slowed down a lot but the aftermath is still ongoing. After trapping the male, the female took off and is about 6 miles to the SW at last flight on Thursday. There are traps everywhere in preparation for her return. I understand they are trapping for her because of the incident with Ivy not the calf killing. I don't care why but glad to hear there is a limit to how badly they can accost our kids. Nick Smith and Dan Stark also have a permit to shoot her if they have to. My problem is, this animal has a history here and has absolutely no fear it has menaced my daughter and followed my husband, who is not menaceable, or at least he thought he wasn't until he was followed by wolves he was not allowed to shoot. Together they killed and ate two calves before we knew they were here and two bitten calves, they are swelled up and crippled we have shaved measured and taken pictures. One has more bites, on the flanks, side and head but they are superficial, the calf is in quite a bit of distress from bruising but hopefully will be fine. I imagine the times when Dan heard the cows get up and shined the spotlight on them and saw the wolf, he stopped the attacks. The next day there was a calf with a swollen front knee in the same bunch, after shaving we found wolf bites on the front and back legs. The knee is hot and three times bigger than the other, the wound on it is superficial but the trauma caused the swelling is severe and this calf may be ruined. Both calves were in the bunch Dan guarded Tuesday night. If he hadn't been there would probably be 4 missing calves and four tight bagged cows. I am glad he got to experience the mayhem one pair of wolves can attempt to wreck in just 12 hours. On a side note there is another injury from a calf caught in a trap this morning, nobody is to blame for that, We are grateful to have the traps out, but still, another injury. There was a small bunch of 11 cows and calves that were harassed by the pair, not including the two that lost the calves. It has been some week. I have a dramatic picture for every day of the week. Yesterday the FS backburned from behind my house and it was pretty scary kind of like a volcano going off on your back door. The results should be good though. We had good representation from our government yesterday though. FWS, FS RITF and APHIS all on the porch at once. If we can find a piece of the space shuttle maybe NASA will come pay us a visit. It is hard to know where to begin since our emotions have run the gamut the past few days. Traps were set Tuesday after the male was caught and the female left for several days, she ended up on the Diamond Bar where Nick Smith tracked her for several days. He found one bitten calf probably from the trip over here a week prior. The calf was a month or two old so that is probably why they were still shy about killing it and staying there. The weekend was pretty good though, I went to town, 74 miles away on Saturday and bought groceries so the guys could be fed halfway decently while they worked and believe me they worked. Matt took Miles, he is 5 and clipped cages below the house and Dan checked his traps and made a 20 mile circle hiking into diamond creek on foot trying to get a signal. He was unsuccessful but Nick Smith found her signal later that night west of the Links camp on the Diamond Bar. On Sunday, Matt and Dan rode into Round Mountain and packed salt. That afternoon everyone rested a bit between checking traps and gardening, painting, watching Kristie and her boyfriend and various other normal pursuits. She was back here Monday morning. Dan woke up checked his equipment, got a signal and took off. When I checked cows that day I got a signal that seemed pretty strong right in the cows up 74 draw and Dan's truck was nearby. She pretty much stayed there all day with Dan tracking her along with Nick Smith who came in to help him. Dan came in that evening to make some phone calls and get something to eat. While he was on the phone, Matt and I went out and looked after the cows, one of us on either end of the bunch. She was there the whole time but we didn't have a directional antenna and felt our job was to look after the cows not the wolf. Monday night and Tuesday, yesterday. Dan was up all night with her, most of the cattle were west about a mile he felt OK about leaving her alone until light, really there wasn't much choice since she didn't seem to be doing anything but hanging out in that area and it was pretty thick. Near morning he could hear coyotes making a heck of a ruckus in the draw she was up and thought that it was weird since he has been taught all his life that such wolf/coyote fraternizing behavior was abnormal. He hadn't remembered or taken us seriously when we had told him the coyotes saved her life in the winter of 1999/2000 when she was here last. She had nearly starved to death until she started hanging around with the coyotes. Kristie who was 15 at the time had ridden up on her and the wolf followed her part way back to the house. Kristie was really mad because she could see the wolf was half dead from hunger and going bald. It was so cold that winter she would cry on the mountain behind the house and we would hear her at night. She was there for 5 months until she moved to the neighbors on Canyon Creek and killed her first calf. Later that summer she moved to the Adobe which is north of us met with her old mate and really went to killing cattle. Those coyotes saved her life though and she was used to being around them. Anyway, Dan hiked into the draw to see what was up as soon as there was enough light and a cow with a full bag of milk met him on his way in. The bad news is 592 was on a cow that had calved a day or two before and she had killed the calf. The coyotes had found her and were trying to steal the carcass from her. He ran both the wolf and the coyotes, off the calf, found two pieces and packed them to the truck and brought them in to the house put them in the barn and called Wildlife Services. As Dan has found out, sometimes there is just nothing you can do about the killing even when you are watching just as close as you can and not sleeping or eating to do it. The wolf has every advantage even if you do have the technology. We were very lucky he found any remains of this calf. The calf was killed by the wolf, Wildlife Services verified it the hemorrhaging was way too bad to be coyote and the bite marks measured out. At least the few that weren't eaten away. The calf was in two pieces it was a new heifer and had walked on it's feet quite a bit before it was killed. The cow was one we were concerned about because she had taken off to have the calf as they all do. Apparently she didn't hide well enough to fool the wolf. But as Dan can attest to, she was hidden from all human eyes pretty darned well. I had to go to Winston and get gas, so I took Dan and Nick some Orange juice that afternoon, Dan looked like crap and they were still tracking her. Dan was waiting for Nick to radio him and was trying to catch a catnap under the truck when I pulled up, so much for that nap. Johnny Anglin with Wildlife Services arrived the same time I did. We left them to their business about 30 min later. On my way home I found a brand new calf in the same bunch of cows that the wolf had been living with the past couple days. I took pictures of it in case the calf showed up on a milk carton in the next day or two. The cow was eating her afterbirth in the pictures so she was doing her best to keep baby safe instinct is an amazing thing. It was a big old baby too. The wolf was shot this evening, the poor little old thing was laid out on the tailgate. She had big feet, a big head and big teeth and an extremely full belly. She did have a really ugly unhealthy looking coat in my opinion for something that had only come out of captivity a few weeks earlier. It had done nothing but follow her own survival instinct as successfully as possible. This was a dumb mistake and a bad situation that didn't have to happen. We all spent a week living and breathing this tragedy that resulted in three dead calves, 3 wolf injured calves a bunch of stressed out people one trapped wolf and one pathetic shot wolf. It cost us a full week away from earning any income milling and we are way behind, broke and extremely tired. It cost Dan his peace of mind and taught him the hard way what we have to deal with. Thankfully he retained his integrity in spite of the mess and stress going on all around him. Thank goodness it is over for now. However I know the Francisco Pack will be re-released soon and am sure the same set of problems on a larger scale will be imminent as soon as that release takes place. Rereleasing habitual stock killers is poor management and is only asking for trouble. Unfortunately so many of the employees agree with the environmentalists that the wolves should be out on the ground no matter how many of our cows they kill so they just keep using problem and habituated wolves in the program. When the wolf kills too many cattle they just re-write their policy to allow them to leave it out longer and hurt us ranchers more. Update: June 5, Sherry Laney found a calf with a big bite in it's behind the bite is 1 and \1/2\ inches, wolf width. It is healing but mildly infected. I guess she wasn't so shy over there after all. June 2004. A single wolf has been moving around 74 draw all month. Matt found a small calf with his hind end totally mauled. We already had his mother here at the house, that cow never ever loses a calf so Matt had been looking for the calf, the calf found him actually ran to him bawling for help. We cut away the dead and infected flesh and found bites in all the same places as last years calves, WS came out but they didn't do a thorough job examining it. I was gone so nobody insisted on a thorough job like I would have. I did it myself later. This is a wolf attack the bites measure out and the injuries are in the same place and there were wolf tracks. People don't realize wolves are not efficient killers and they aren't at all humane about what they do. They simply get something down and start eating and the prey dies of shock and blood loss. It is very difficult for someone who raises livestock to see their hard work tortured to death in this manner, especially the pregnant cows and the baby calves. This wolf was inexperienced and the calf got away. He nearly died of the infection though and weighed about 150 pounds less than the other calves. I guess when he finally went to the market he was considered a wolf friendly beef. Summer 2005 wolf tracks up and down 74 draw again. Watching all the cattle all the time no time for school or anything else. Kristie got married in July so we are glad the wolves didn't show up until after the wedding anyway. No kills that we know of except to a bear which we were allowed to take care of so that ended that problem. October 2006. At least two separate wolves moving in and out of the area. These wolves do not have tracking collars. FWS will not investigate. WS showed up and documented tracks so we can do something if there is a kill. Nothing so far that we were able to find just a lot of lost time and a huge amount of fuel again. Bought two Pyreneese pups in September, we can't afford to feed them but we have to do something progressive. We have also purchased water rights and are going to the huge expense of putting an irrigation system into the old fields on this place so we can bring cows into the deeded land if necessary and wolves get into them again. We have to be able to defend our cattle and the rules only allow us to do so if they are on deeded land. We have also built kennels at a 4000 dollar cost that we also cannot afford but we can't allow wolves to come into the deeded land and kill our valuable cow dogs. We can't operate in this rough country without them. December 26, 2006. Pyraneese puppies who are 5 months old now gone. The other one is hiding under the porch and there are wolf tracks everywhere. We had them penned up in the yard but they found a way out. The kids are devastated. We looked everywhere but the puppy is gone. The wolf just carried him off. All that dog food we have in him wasted all those kid hugs and effort just eaten up like it was nothing. We will have to replace him, his brother can't be alone with these animals around. I guess we just have to get used to living with death and destruction and still we are supposed to be happy people and living under the requirements of the law. It is sickening. 2007. June 11 on our way home from town we saw three wolves, one had a collar but two did not. They were in Brian Carters cows on the side of the road just about two miles from the Poverty creek subdivision. They were just laying in the tall grass with the cattle waiting for it to get a little darker. Matt and I ran them off the cows and called our neighbors to tell them the wolves were in the cows. It didn't help, the next day we went over with our monitor and there was no signal for the collared animal so he is probably has a non functioning collar. This is a whole other pack FWS do not believe exist. Found wolf poop two different piles of it. One had calf teeth in it. FWS never even bothered to come out or do anything at all and there is no telling where these animals are now. Our closest neighbor Jack Diamond has the horse killing aspen pack on him in his roughest pasture they are having pups there and are now feeding his yearlings to the pups. I went over and gave moral support while they confirmed the first kill that the Diamonds were able to find. They are out there every day but like I said it is rough country and they won't know how many they lost until it is time to ship the yearlings. Nearly 2 year old heifer eaten alive at water tank on Diamond's place. All three wolves involved only the male has a strike towards removal. The rule doesn't say only one wolf gets the strike. FWS are cheating the people out here of proper and fair management to leave killer wolves out on the ground. May/June 07. I once again have two sets of wolf tracks and no signal in our cow pasture. I am watching the cattle like a hawk. The Boy Scout camp has moved in and that seemed to have driven the animals out for now. Now I am just worried sick about the kids so I warned, mentioned is a better word the wolves to the scoutmasters. How do you tell them that wolves that attacked a dog in front of an 8 year old girl are here within a half days walk of your camp. I didn't tell them all that, didn't want them to feel uncomfortable out here. I want them out here while it is still possible, within a year or two, nobody will be comfortable camping out here with kids. So I told them to come and use my phone for anything they needed and I am checking in on them every day or two. It is nerve wracking but they are making quite a bit of noise so things should be ok. We are exhausted and financially strapped from all the re- vamping of our operation and we are demoralized by all the un-collared wolves we are seeing and finding tracks for. Mostly it is so disheartening that nobody even cares about our neighbors and ourselves. That we are all going broke supporting this program and those kids running it are getting huge salaries and don't end up losing anything, ever. Why us why is it our responsibility to shoulder this program's foolishness? Why are we being allowed to go bankrupt? Why can't I finish my college education? Why can't my youngest daughter go off to school too? She feels like she needs to be here to help us keep our home and help us keep our family ranch in business. My son never got to be raised at the creek playing with minnows and frogs like his sisters did before wolves. He hasn't gotten to ride with his dad hardly at all either, he just turned 9 and his whole life has been affected by wolves. At least our girls were able to be raised out here the way we intended. Our son is locked into a yard and has to be watched constantly. I have to attend every single meeting I can scrape together gas money for, and we can't afford to any more. But if we don't go, FWS and the groups that support this program and who get paychecks to go to these meetings will come up with another plan to harm us further. I pray every night that this program will go away, before it is too late for us before it is too late for the game and the whole country is too dangerous to live in the way it used to be. Sincerely Laura.

Mr. PEARCE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We again have the issue of depredation. There is no fund that pays ranchers when their livestock is killed. So we have the livestock, which in these days of ranching, ranching is a very hard business, and we have the livestock which is killed by these predators that continue to eliminate more and more livestock each year, with no payments being made from Fish and Wildlife Service. I would simply point out, and I would thank the gentleman from Kansas for yielding, that this program is restricted to only two very rural parts of America. It is wrong; it is wrongheaded. I would thank the gentleman from Washington for his suggestion to withdraw the amendment but would instead ask for a vote on the amendment.

Mr. PEARCE. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. PEARCE. I thank the gentleman, who has no wolves in his district.

Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, I would ask unanimous consent to withdraw my words.

Mr. PEARCE

Mr. PEARCE. I thank the gentlewoman from Florida for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the committee for his work on this important bill; Senator Domenici, Senator Bingaman, Secretary Garcia, Governor Richardson, Congressman Udall, and Congresswoman Wilson for their lead in recognizing Jerry Murphy's life of service. We have heard about his exploits. We have heard about the valor that he displayed under fire. Many of us too often believe that heroism can only be exhibited in those extreme circumstances. But I would say that it takes more courage to live a life of service that he chose to live after his heroic exploits where he was awarded the Nation's highest award for valor where he received the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, the Korean Service Medal, the Bronze Stars. This was a true hero. Yet, he wasn't faced with multi-million dollar book signing deals, no movie contracts; just a quiet life serving other veterans who are often overlooked. The Korean War is often referred to in New Mexico by veterans of that conflict as ``the Forgotten War,'' because so many of the veterans of that time have simply been overlooked. Yet, Jerry Murphy chose to live a life where he remembered each and every one of them. So, it is entirely appropriate today that we would name a facility in New Mexico for the guy who worked at the facility, always remembering those forgotten veterans. That is the kind of life that takes real valor and real heroism to live day after day after day. For his quiet life of service, we are simply saying, Thank you for a job well done, Mr. Murphy. God bless you and keep you.

Mr. PEARCE

Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to support this amendment that will restore a portion of the fundmg which is critical to maintaining our commitment to safety and security of our nuclear stewardship responsibilities. I deeply regret that the Majority has decided to cut these programs and irrevocably harm our nuclear weapon programs and fail to maintain our nuclear stockpile. Our responsibility is to protect the American people and ensure that our weapons programs operate in a responsible and secure manner. These important programs are our national deterrent against rogue nations who would threaten us with weapons of mass destruction. In addition, these cuts will erode our non-proliferation efforts worldwide, as our allies would have to consider expanding their own nuclear arsenals to make up for our reductions. The cuts proposed today will cut nearly 40 percent of the funding for our Nuclear weapons programs operated at Los Alamos National Laboratory. I would ask the sponsors of these cuts if they believe that the threats from rogue states and aggressive dictators have reduced by 40 percent? If not, why are we cutting our ability to defend ourselves by 40 percent? These cuts will damage our ability to retain good scientists, preserve the knowledge base of our laboratory, and our preparedness to respond to our future nuclear needs. In addition, these cuts decimate the nation's Stockpile Stewardship Program. Since we have stopped testing nuclear weapons, our country relies on Los Alamos to ensure that our strategic weapon capabilities are safe, reliable and secure. Failure do so abdicates our responsibility to the protect the American people. These programs are critical to the mission of Los Alamos and critical to America. We shouldn't just simply fold up our tent and allow these programs to be deeply cut or nearly eliminated and I urge all my colleagues to stand up and support this amendment and furthermore support restoring the full funding to these important programs.

Mr. PEARCE

Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, I would say to the chairman that I understand and accept that, but I would point out to the chairman that we have legislated this way through appropriations before, and we'll do it again. I would simply make the point that the point of order today says we will not do what our seniors and what our veterans deserve for us to do one more time. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time and graciously accept the gentleman's comments in his point of order and thank him for his work on this bill.

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

Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, we call our veterans from World War II America's greatest generation but our actions don't always hold water. I rise today to offer an amendment to the Military Construction- Veterans Affairs appropriations bill which would ensure veterans are appropriately reimbursed for mileage travel to and from medical facilities in New Mexico or large rural States. Many times people in my county, 305 miles away from Albuquerque one way, are directed to drive to Albuquerque. These people, many are like my father in their 80s, they cannot travel 5\1/2\ hours one way. It's unthinkable that we do that. It's unconscionable that we only pay them 11 cents a mile. From Hobbs to Albuquerque, 305 miles one way, the reimbursement is $34. I would like to ask anyone in this chamber how they would expect to drive 305 miles for $34, but even worse, the Veterans' Administration takes a fee when they get there. Approximately $7.50 of the $34 is then sacrificed to the VA. No allowance is made to sleep overnight. No allowance is made for hotel. No allowance is made for any circumstance except turning around and driving another 5\1/2\ hours to get back home. We are reimbursing all that driving at 11 cents a mile. Meanwhile many of us in government jobs, all Federal officials are reimbursed at 48\1/2\ cents per mile because that's the going rate. That's the rate that we should be paying, and yet to America's Greatest Generation, we're paying 11 cents a mile. Now, the director of the service, the Secretary, could change this by regulation, and all people on this House floor agree that it should be changed. Back in March of 2007, March of this year, we passed the Wounded Warrior Act, H.R. 1538, by a vote of 426-0, where we mandated that the Secretary actually do this. But we also know in Washington that we play games with people, we play games with our veterans. So that bill now is trapped over in the Senate. What my amendment simply does is say we would like for the Secretary not to pay anyone mileage from this bill, from H.R. 2642, until he remedies the situation with our veterans. Pay them what the mileage costs them to drive. We are mandating that they go that far to the facilities. That's unthinkable, but it's unconscionable that we are paying only 11 cents a mile. So while we are claiming America's generation, America's World War II veterans, to be our Greatest Generation, let's begin to act with honor and reimburse them the way that we should. My amendment would ensure that. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time. Point of Order

Mr. PEARCE

Mr. PEARCE. My simple point was that the same agency that approved the puffer machines is going to approve the explosion devices; and my feeling is that the agency has been ill-managed since the beginning. We have a desperate need on the southern border today, right now. The TSA, in finding equipment and funding equipment, both now and in the past, has been shown to be very, very ineffective. I would just say, we have an emergency crisis on the southern border and all along the northern borders. We have 13,000 Border Patrol agents to work that entire range of 5,400 miles and we have 43,000 TSA officers and inspectors.

Mr. PEARCE. Where you walk in and they puff.

Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, we spent a lot of money on the puffer machines that are at the airports. We have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on those, and I would ask the gentleman about the quality of product that we are getting from those puffer machines.

Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, would the gentleman from North Carolina yield?

Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, I would like to amend this bill in order to make our borders more secure. I am one of the Members who lives on a border and on the southern border. In New Mexico we experience many of the problems of having a porous border. We find drugs, human trafficking, and other problems at the border because of our failure to secure the border, and many of our residents are affected daily. With an overwhelming amount of funding and preexisting TSA full-time employees, I think it is proper for us to divert funding from TSA to border security. The TSA, and I have heard my constituents call it ``thousands standing around,'' seems to have plenty of people to do its work, and yet we do not have enough people to put on the border. We are simply requesting a move of less than 3 percent of the funds. Less than 3 percent of an agency, and every single American who travels on airlines understands the number of people they see standing around when they walk through the checkpoints. We are asking that less than 3 percent of that money be sent over to where we can use it along the borders. Our calculation is that we can hire over 4,000 new people to help us secure the southern border of the United States. CBO recognizes the value of this and scores this as a $43 million savings. We would like to draw that to the attention of the body. Every year, between 500,000 and 1 million illegal immigrants come into the United States. We need more people to help on the southern border. Many problems are coming into this country and many problems are affecting each State, but especially the States that lie on the border. Mr. Chairman, I respectfully ask Members to support this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. PEARCE. I yield myself the balance of my time. I appreciate the chairman and the ranking member bringing their observation. I would point out that $125 million is what we are requesting to be taken from TSA. TSA has a budget of over $4 billion, and $125 million represents less than 3 percent. I would also point out that over 450 miles exist of border, and we have 13,000 Border Patrol agents, and yet we have 43,000 employees in TSA to do screening. I am telling the American people that we have underfunded consistently for the last decades, the last 30, 40, 50 years, the efforts that are needed on the southern border, and today is not the day to find 3 percent to be an onerous fee. I sat on the Transportation Committee and watched some of the elements two terms ago. Last year I was on Homeland Security. I saw the waste, fraud and abuse, and I will tell the American people that tonight we must make the stand that our border must be secured. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PEARCE. Would the gentleman yield?

Mr. PEARCE

Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, I have a question for the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price). He mentioned last night that the underlying amendment is Mr. McHenry wanting to take money out of the appropriation for the lawyers, and he pointed out we have 77 staffers in order to watch for circumstances like the Dubai Ports. I would comment that the gentleman's party has been in the majority now since January, and 80 percent of our ports are still controlled by foreign countries. Have you put a bill in? If that is true, and it is, 80 percent controlled by foreign countries, that is the exact circumstance you mentioned we would not want to cut this budget for. I am asking if the gentleman knows of any plans on his side to simply eliminate those contracts, to take the contracts away from the foreign countries. It seems like if the gentleman is concerned, 80 percent of our ports are controlled, that there would be something in the works to do that.

Mr. PEARCE. I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan.

Mr. PEARCE. I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky.

Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, I would just comment that there is $5 billion in the first responder grant program which has not been accepted by States, and each year about September they have to give back a portion of that. And the underlying bill appropriates $4 billion more, and that is the reason that the President cut $50 million out. He said there is so much money unspent, let's begin to lower the level we are pouring into it, and it seems to me a reasonable suggestion.

Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Before the gentlewoman from Michigan leaves, I wonder if she would yield to a question. I was wondering, the gentlewoman mentioned, and I appreciate what she is saying about leadership getting together, she mentioned a $50 million cut to first responders. Can you tell me how much is unspent from previous appropriations? Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan.

Mr. PEARCE. I am asking. The gentleman seemed concerned, and I am asking him if he has any intent to do that.

Mr. PEARCE. I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.