President Obama’s kingdom-building budget lacks enforcement

Congressman John Carter (R-TX31), Chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee today issued the following statement regarding the President’s FY 2015 Budget Request.

“A budget that proposes spending $56 billion above the bipartisan agreement level, includes a nearly three percent increase to DHS headquarter offices, a new $700 million FEMA political slush fund, and more than a billion dollars in unauthorized fees on U.S. travelers and businesses is a slap in the face to the American people and the men and women serving within DHS. In a time when the American people want a more efficient, effective, and productive government, President Obama continues to politicize DHS for his own partisan agenda and stand in the way of the very reform this mismanaged Department so desperately needs. To propose cuts to security operations at ICE and Coast Guard while increasing money for Washington paper pushers is unacceptable!

This budget also includes an extra $56 billion above the bicameral, bipartisan Ryan-Murray agreement that the President endorsed and signed into law just three months ago.  This represents nearly $60 billion in presidential wish-list spending that will go straight to the American taxpayer’s credit card during a time when we can least afford it. 

Over the next few months, I’ll be scrutinizing this so-called budget proposal.  I intend to determine why the Administration is claiming they don’t have the resources to enforce our laws; yet, at the same time, propose significant budget reductions to everything from:  immigration enforcement; to visa fraud investigations; to prevention of human smuggling and trafficking; to counternarcotics; to the prevention of child exploitation. 

So, to say I am disappointed in this budget proposal is an understatement.  With bipartisan congressional support, the President signed into law the budget for the next years. This is another example of an untrustworthy President, who continues promoting the notion of ‘I do what I want, when I want, how I want.’ That is not what our forefathers intended and is not what our constitution stands for.

Secretary Johnson has started out on the right foot and I know he inherited this ill-conceived budget.  I hope that his team can make some sense of this proposal in coming months and work with us as we try to determine the necessary FY15 funding levels for DHS.”

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