00:00Gentleman from West Virginia, Mr. Moore, is recognized for the purpose of an amendment.
00:06Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:09I have an amendment at the desk and I ask unanimous consent that the reading be dispensed with.
00:14Without objection, the reading of the amendment is dispensed with and the gentleman is recognized
00:19for remarks on his amendment.
00:21Right.
00:22So, I have an interesting amendment here which I rise in support of.
00:28I have my glasses, not on my 60th birthday yet, but I still need these.
00:32It has to do with a land transfer and a land swap in between land that is currently owned
00:42right now by Interior and land over here that is owned by the Department of Homeland Security.
00:50This green right here is actually a National Historic Battlefield.
00:57Well, Harper's Ferry, which occurred kind of up this way.
01:01This is part of that.
01:03And for some reason, there's this big donut in it which belongs to the Department of Homeland Security.
01:11Now, if I was able to get on the phone and call Robert Byrd and ask him why it's like
01:16this.
01:17I would, but I don't have that ability right now to be able to do that.
01:21But when this was created, for some reason, this land was acquired with it, which has put
01:27this big donut hole in here.
01:28Now, why this is so important to this facility, it's the Border Patrol's Advanced Training Center.
01:38And the Advanced Training Center for CBP is the only place in the country where we're able to train
01:46ICE, Border Patrol, Customs officials to be able to become officers or agents.
01:53Now, as you all are aware, we have now appropriated through reconciliation $175 billion to the Department
02:02of Homeland Security to hire a lot of new agents, which, you know, we're looking at, you know,
02:1010,000 new ICE agents.
02:12It's 5,000 Border Patrol or 3,000 Border Patrol and 5,000 Customs officials.
02:19So, that's a lot.
02:21Now, this place is already at capacity, unfortunately.
02:25And as you see, the land that's contiguous to it is, unfortunately, part of interior.
02:32And so, we've been trying to swap these two things.
02:34Now, I know this is an authorization and this is appropriations, which we never do that until
02:40we do.
02:40Um, but this is why I just kind of wanted to bring this issue to everybody's attention since
02:45this is going to be an urgent issue that one way or another, either Natural Resources or
02:52this committee, somebody is going to have to deal with at some point.
02:58And it's unfortunate because it's also put this kind of no-go zone around this beautiful
03:03historic Civil War battlefield.
03:05Um, and so, that's why we're looking to swap these two, uh, in this amendment.
03:12But, with that said, I've worked with the chairman.
03:14We've had a great discussion about how to work on this issue, pass this markup right here,
03:21and look forward to working with you moving forward on the floor and as we go into conference
03:25and things of that nature.
03:26But, uh, and appreciate your support in understanding the critical nature of this issue, Mr. Chairman.
03:32Thank you very much, Chairman Simpson, for that.
03:33So, with that, I'm going to withdraw my amendment.
03:38Hopefully, I don't have to bring this poster board back next year, but I'm going to bring
03:41it back every time until it gets fixed.
03:43But, thank you, Mr. Chairman, so much, and I yield back.
03:48The way things move, you may be, uh, making a repeat of parents.
Comments