Kay Bailey Hutchison tells America to go f itself

 
The Bulletin calls our attention to an outrageous amendment tacked on to the recent omnibus spending bill. The amendment guts the requirements of the 2006 Secure Fence Act that had authorized hundreds of miles of border fence.

In a quiet act of defiance, the Senate approved a $555 billion omnibus spending bill that removed legal requirements mandating the federal government fund 854 miles of a double layer border fence spanning America’s southwestern border... When the spending bill, which combines appropriations for a number of federal agencies, reached the Senate, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) attached S.Amdt. 2466 to the measure in order to silently gut the SFA’s spending requirement.

The Hutchison amendment reads, “Nothing in this paragraph shall require the Secretary of Homeland Security to install fencing, physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras and sensors in a particular location along an international border of the United States, if the secretary determines that the use or placement of such resources is not the most appropriate means to achieve and maintain operational control over the international border at such location.” Thus, critics argue the amendment results in a de facto repeal of the SFA.

“The Hutchison amendment gives DHS virtually total discretion over how and where the fence is built,” commented Steve Elliott, president of Grassfire.org. “In fact, DHS would not be required to build fencing in any particular location -- and the double-layer mandate is totally gone.”

A recent Time Magazine poll found that:

...most Americans, 56 to 40 percent, want a border wall built along Mexico and America... all the way across. 62 percent of Americans want the military to guard the border. 51 percent want all illegals deported, and the border sealed...

And the desire for better border control transcends party: both Democrats and Republicans are united on this issue.

Beltway hacks like Kay Bailey Hutchison are more interested in pleasuring big business than listening to what the vast majority of Americans want. It's just one more nail in the coffin of so-called "representative government."

Hat tip: Oscar Poppa