by Dylan Smith
TucsonSentinel.com
President Barack Obama signed a $600 million border bill Friday morning.
The product of a merry-go-round process between the House and Senate, the Southwest Border Security Bill will put more agents and equipment on the border with Mexico.
Orange County Register
A bill to spend an additional $600 million on border security was passed by the House Tuesday morning, just minutes after the chamber came back into session from its August recess. The House was called back by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so it could pass a package of education and health care aid to the states.
“This funding is urgently needed to counter the pressure law enforcement and border communities currently face,’’ said Rep. David Price, D-N.C., who led the debate on the Democratic side.
Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services/East Valley Tribune
The federal lawmaker given the go-ahead to leak in May that the president was sending National Guard troops to the border wants to know where they are.
“We want boots on the ground, not federal foot-dragging,” Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., said Wednesday in a prepared statement.
Giffords said the administration promised to have soldiers in Arizona at the beginning of August. Now, days into the month — and no soldiers on the border — she said no one in the government can tell her exactly when they will be deployed.
The U.S. House passed an appropriation for border security culminating in House passage of $701 million in emergency funds, said U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
“The first responsibility of government is to protect its citizens from harm. The Senate failed in meeting this responsibility when it voted against border security funding last week”,” Giffords said today. “It now is the duty of the Senate to quickly approve this funding before it goes on recess. The people of Southern Arizona must not have their concerns on safety and security shunted aside any longer.”
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Sierra Vista Herald
Candidates for House of Reps, CD 8, were asked to address the following:
1. Please tell why do you believe you are the best qualified among candidates for your position.
2. What do you believe currently is the most important issue facing the winner of the office you seek?
3. Please provide your opinion for or against bipartisanship action in the House of Representatives.
4. If Congress has overstepped its constitutional bounds in making laws and if it did, why?
Gabrielle Giffords
Political affiliation: Democrat
Current employer: The People of Arizona’s 8th District
Occupation: U.S. Representative, CD-8
Age: 40
Home: Tucson
Family: Spouse, Mark Kelly, U.S. Navy Captain and NASA astronaut; step-daughters, Claudia and Claire Kelly
1. I’ve lived up to my promise to fight for the people I represent by cleaning up Washington, including ending the influence of lobbyists and corrupt earmarking. Running my family’s tire company, I know the meaning of hard work and the importance of small business. Since 2007, I’ve successfully pushed for doubling Border Patrol agents and deploying National Guard along the border, passing the new GI Bill and modernizing the VA. To better understand my priorities in Congress and work on key committees, please visit www.giffords.house.gov.
2. Ending Washington’s partisan gridlock. Americans need more leaders who will do their jobs — not simply obstruct progress for short-term personal or political gain. All elected Republicans and Democrats need to start by working together to secure our border.
Border security is national security. I have called for tough border security measures, including more Border Patrol agents and mobile surveillance systems on the border and tough penalties for employers who hire illegal workers. Action by our federal government to secure our border is long overdue, and it’s time for both parties to do their jobs and to do it together.
3. Every year our country gets more divided and bipartisanship feels more like a thing of the past. This isn’t good for the future of our nation and isn’t a productive way for elected officials to work. America’s problems are bipartisan, so our solutions must be bipartisan.
I’m a strong believer in bipartisanship — and not just during election years. The lion’s share of the bills I’ve introduced, like the New Employee Verification Act, a bill to toughen laws governing how employers must verify the citizenship of prospective employees that I introduced with Texas Republican Sam Johnson, have a Republican co-sponsor.
4. Even the smallest government is excessive if it doesn’t work for the people it’s supposed to serve. I fight every day to make government work for Southern Arizonans. That’s why I voted to stop abuses by Wall Street and cut middle class taxes. That’s why I believe we should fix Social Security, not privatize it; BP should be held accountable for devastating the Gulf and the federal government must secure our border. Voters have a choice on Nov. 2. No matter how big the ax we take to government, it won’t matter without leaders who put the people over politics.
The Arizona Conference of Police and Sheriffs (AZCOPS) Local 7077 has endorsed Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. In his endorsement letter, AZCOPS President Larry Lopez praised Gabrielle’s “support for public safety officers and willingness to listen to [their] concerns.”
AZCOPS is Arizona’s largest association of public safety officers, with more than 8,000 members from 95 local police and sheriffs affiliates. As the “voice for officers in their hometowns,” the Association’s mission is to ensure officers have the tools they need to keep Arizona’s communities safe.
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by Rhonda Bodfield
Arizona Daily Star Pueblo Politics Blog
After the House passed a bill providing another $701 million in new border security funding Wednesday night, Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl introduced their own bill Thursday providing…..$701 million in new border security funding.
The House version, co-sponsored by Arizona Democratic congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords and Ann Kirkpatrick and 10 others, would provide a host of improvements along the border, including 1,200 additional Border Patrol agents, another 500 customs and immigration officers, more money for communications and funding for two more unmanned surveillance aircraft.
Dear Friend,
Gabrielle Giffords gets it. Arizona’s southern border is in trouble and she’s fighting every day to fix it.
On Saturday, I presented Gabrielle with an award from the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association recognizing her fight to secure our border. I told the ranchers gathered from across the state that if you go visit Gabrielle in Washington as I have, “Don’t wear your boots; take your tennis shoes if you’re going to keep up with her. She goes like crazy.”
by Gary Martin
San Antonio Express
Border lawmakers from Southwest states were instrumental in pressing the House to pass a $701 million bill Wednesday for security measures on the U.S.-Mexico border after the money was stripped out of a previous war funding bill in the Senate.
by Bill Hess
Sierra Vista Herald
Although $701 million for border security was cut by the U.S. Senate last week from the war supplemental bill, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the same amount Wednesday in an emergency border security funding bill.
The funds’ revival was introduced by Democratic U.S. Rep. David Price of North Carolina, chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Tucson, had fought for the funds since they were removed by the Senate. Arizona’s two GOP U.S. senators voted to remove the money and other funds totaling nearly $20 billion that had been added to the supplemental bill by House members.
“I promised members of the Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association when I spoke to them last week that I would fight for this funding,” said Giffords, who represents Arizona 8th Congressional District.
