Friday, July 15, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Senate kills Ensign's bid for more border agents

A bid by Sen. John Ensign for the government to hire 1,000 more border agents next year was killed in the Senate on Thursday after critics said the plan would divert money from local emergency responders.

The Senate voted 60-38 to shelve Ensign's amendment to a bill that funds homeland security programs for the coming year. The Nevada Republican has promoted bills to increase U.S. border policing in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"In order to prevent another terrorist attack on American soil, we must improve every aspect of our nation's security," Ensign said. "Our security is truly only as strong as our weakest link. For too long, the lack of funding for border agents has been a weak link."

Ensign said the amendment would raise border police to the levels recommended by the 9/11 Commission that studied the terrorist attacks.

To pay for new Customs and Border Patrol agents, Ensign's plan redirected $367 million from a pool of grants distributed to "threat" cities for terrorism emergency planning. Las Vegas receives funds from that pool.

The Nevadan's amendment, cosponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was opposed on several fronts.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the amendment would reduce homeland security grants by almost 24 percent that pay for emergency workers, police, firefighters and technicians. It would have reduced the pool of first responder money from $1.9 billion to $1.4 billion, according to Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

"There's not enough money for our first responders," Schumer said. "There's nothing that says we have to rob Peter to pay Paul ."

A second Ensign amendment won approval. It directs the Transportation Security Administration to begin testing multicompartment bins for airport passengers to place belongings in at security checkpoints.