failed to override president trump's veto of a resolution that would have blocked as emergency declaration to build a wall on the southern border. the 248-181 vote did not clear that two thirds majority threshold. the wall street journal calls this the coda of a long struggle over funding a wall along the border with mexico. right now, we will go back to the house debate from today leading up to the vote. it is 50 minutes. empore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. defazio: madam speaker, today we will vote to override the president's veto of congress' bipartisan action to terminate his so-called national emergency declaration. the bottom line is that this emergency declaration is nothing more than an end run around a majority, bipartisan majority, of both the house and the senate, in complete disregard of our constitutional system of separation of powers.

there is no doubt that we have a broken immigration system. and comprehensive reform should be a subject of congressional deliberation. but today in particular we have a new crisis, it's a humanitarian crisis. but the president has said that this wall will solve that problem. and he also says that this is about drugs. let's talk about that, if we could. .ere we have walls are static very old technology have been used for many, many, many centuries. but as we note most recently when the french built the line, the germans went around it in 24 hours. similar to what the president is proposing. he wants a wall on part of the border. if the problem were people illegally crossing, they would

cross in other areas where there is no wall. but that's actually not the case. he says that this will stop the flood of people who are coming to the border. these are not the historic people who were crossing the border legally to come to the united states for the purposes of work and to recommit funds home. or those who were illegally smuggling drugs through remote areas. this is a humanitarian crisis. this is recently in tijuana of a flood of people coming, actually to -- two areas where we have always wahls and fences and wanting to surrender to the border patrol and claim asylum. or coming to places where we don't have walls and fences and searching for border patrol agents so they can claim asylum. so a wall is going to do nothing to deal with the humanitarian crisis. we need to take a more nault

approach to that. secondly, says it's about drugs. makes a big deal about this is contributing to the death of the opioid crycy, fentsal. the chinese are shipping in fentanyl in other ways, not across the mexican border, maybe we ought to do something about that. we have tried with walls to prevent the smuggling of drugs. the drug smugglers are creative. they have used rather primitive devices. that's the cana put. they have used -- catapult. they have used drones. tunnels. we found out in the trial of elchapo guzman, that the preferred route is not some remote area that is unwalled but actually to come across at the legal border crossings here. and it's such a big business it's like they can can modify a semitractor-trailer, put in a fake floor, and send 10 in a day. we only inspect one out of 10. so therefore they get nine through. they lost one truck.

millions of dollars worth of drugs in a truck. they don't care. it's a multibillion dollar business. we need new tools and technology at the legal border crottings, in particular we need that so we can scan 100% of the vehicles. we have to bring in the equipment, hire more personnel. these are very expensive undertakings. instead we're going to waste money on a static wall which won't stop the drugs. even more than that, the coast guard, former commandant of the coast guard, testified that they have actionable intelligence they think on about 80% of the maritime drug shipments targeting the u.s. mostly from central america. some from other asian pacific areas. nd they can only act on one -- 1/5 of the actionable intelligence. they don't have the personnel. they don't have the ships. they don't have the helicopters. they don't have the tools they need to interdict those

maritime drug shipments. so we're going to waste money on a stupid static wall. meeb while -- meanwhile, the drugs will flood in on a maritime basis or through the legal border crossings. now, last year the republican -- this is supposedly a crisis. and somehow it wasn't a crisis when the republicans controlled the congress up until the beginning of this year. they refused to appropriate funds for the wall. and then the president shut down the government for 35 days. longest government shutdown in our nation's history. 00,000 people in either denied coming to work or had to work without pay. finally, the president agreeed to open the government with a short-term continuing resolution. and he said that lawmakers should come up with a comprehensive border security proposal. well, congress did that.

bipartisan group delivered compromise legislation rejected the proposed 3w0rder wall -- border wall as ineffective. alternatively it made effective robust investments in border security. congress overwhelmingly passed the legislation. the president agreed to sign it. then he issued a national emergency declaration to raid funds from other departments to secure funding for a border wall. congress has repeatedly voted against. as already said he's made it about drugs. the wall will be ineffective. he's made it about the humanitarian crycy, the wall will be ineffective. how is he going to pay for it? well, he's going to take money that the department of defense was, was going to spend on high priority military construction projects, which will ultimately undermine the training, readiness, and quality of life for our men and women in the armed forces. in 235c9, general robert neller, commandant of the marines, has detailed that the unplanned, unbudgeted shift of funds to deploy troops to the

southern border last fall has forced him to cancel or reduce training exercises, delay urgent repairs, posing an unacceptable risk to our armed forces training and readiness. and then he's also going to take, ironically, drugs, money from the d.o.d. drug interdiction program. which will further inhibit the capability of d.o.d. from effectively interdicting drug shipments in favor of a stupid static wall. this emergency declaration also violates a number of existing laws, military construction codification act, only authorizes the secretary of defense to reallocate funds for construction projects during a national emergency if the project is necessary to support a use of the armed forces. our armed forces are not responsible for en-- enforcing our immigration laws and using these funds in this way is in violation of existing law.

the administration would need to seize thousands of acres of property by imminent dough wine maine to bill build the wall. this is the party of private property rights? 2/3 of border property needed to build the wall is needed by private parties or relevant states. in 1952 the supreme court held in youngstown sheet and tube that president truman's declaration of national emergency, even in the midst of an international armed conflict, did not permit him to unilaterally seize private property. it's unlikely that this thing will get built anyway, but we're going through this process. because of this likely illegal overreach, the house passed a bipartisan resolution to terminate the national emergency declaration, even the republican controlled senate passed the resolution with 12 republican senators breaking with the president. with the president's decision to override this resolution, we must send a strong, clear message to the president, we live in a constitutional,

representative democracy the president and his administration cannot ignore congress and existing law when they don't like our actions. we must stand up and defend our constitutional system, separation of powers, and articlele 1 of the constitution of the united states. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: thank you, madam speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. graves: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, i rise in support of the president's veto, house joint resolution 46. keeping our nation secure should be this president's very highest priority and it is this president's very highest priority. with president trump there is no question that he has and he will continue to carry out this priority. i support his efforts to build a wall on the southern border to protect our country. he's very clearly laid out the case for a declaration for a national emergency. there is a crisis at the

border. crisis that could have been addressed much sooner or even prevented for that matter. the open border policies in the last administration compounded this growing problem. we're seeing the highest rates of illegal immigration since 2007. in february, there were more than double the number of illegal migrants coming into this country as compared to last year. border patrol has apprehended over 268,000 individuals since the beginning of this fiscal year, that's a 97% increase from the previous year. schools, hospitals, other services have become overcrowded, the american workers have been hurt by reduced job opportunities and lower wages. at the same time human and drug traffickers are thriving. in many of our communities notorious ms-13 gang has grown. we have seen tragic cases of crimes committed by illegal aliens who have been deported multiple times. in my own home state of missouri, an individual who was

previously deported returned here illegally and charged in several violent incidents. he's now suspected of murdering five individuals, or five americans. that should never have happened. these kinds of tragic and preventable, i might add, events are happening across this country. that is the very definition of a crisis. last congress, we enacted legislation to deal with the devastating opioid crisis because it is, in fact, also a crisis. we can and we must do more to slow the flow of illegal drugs into this country. the men and women who put their lives on the line every single day to secure our borders deserve all the tools they need to do the job. including a border wall. through president trump's proclamation and his he veto of house joint resolution 4 , he's acting decisively to finally address this crisis under the authority provided him by congress.

provisions the president will use under title 10 explicitly provide the president with that authority. the president is well within his legal authority that congress has provided him. that's the bottom line. i urge my colleagues to stand with the president, stand with law-abiding americans, and law-abiding immigrants, and establish this veto. with, that i'd reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from oregon. mr. defazio: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from new york, mr. nadler, chairman of the judiciary committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. nadler: i thank the gentleman for yielding. madam speaker, i rise in strong support of overriding the president's veto of h.j.res. 46. one month ago the house passed a bipartisan resolution to terminate the so-called national emergency declared by president trump. the senate has like-wise voted in a broad bipartisan basis to reject that declaration, leading president trump to issue the first veto of his presidency.

i'm convinced that the president's actions are unlawful and deeply irresponsible. a core foundation of our system of government and of democracies across the world going back hundreds of years is that the executive cannot unilaterally spend taxpayer money without the legislature's consent. the president shredded that concept when he declared an emergency after he failed to get his way in a budget negotiation. and as he often does, he announced his intention to ignore congress in plain sight for all the world to see. meanwhile, hundreds of americans are starting to receive letters from the federal government demanding entry into their land. soon our fellow citizens' backyards may be seized in order to build a medieval border wall that congress and the american people do not want. the senseless diversion of military resources to the southern border has also created concern about our troops' combat readiness and their ability to implement other key priorities. the administration 'poo -- appears to be deciding on the fly which military construction projects they're planning to raid. leaving our men and women in uniform and everyone else who might be affected in a prolonged state of uncertainty.

this type of chaos and confusion is the inevitable result when the president ignores the express will of congress. the judiciary committee recently held a hearing to discuss the national emergencies act and to be -- and to begin considering reforms of abuses of this power. i was heart understand by the enthusiasm on -- heartened by the enthusiasm on both sides of the aisle for these efforts. but these longer term reform efforts should not detract from our responsibility to address what the president is doing right now. president trump's invention of a so-called national emergency to suit his political goals and to get around congress' refusal of funding request is intolerable. and i will be proud to cast my vote to override his veto. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president. the gentleman from oregon reserves. the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, at this time i would yield two minutes to the gentleman from arkansas, mr.

crawford, who is also the lead republican on the rail subcommittee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. crawford: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the gentleman from missouri for his leadership on this issue. today the house will vote on whether or not to override the president's veto, preserving the emergency declaration regarding the ongoing crisis at the southern border. i'm glad we finally acknowledged on a bipartisan basis that there is in fact a crisis on the southern border. my friend from oregon mentioned that this humanitarian crisis exists and i couldn't agree more. ere's also another crisis -- there's also another crisis at the border. there's been a 295% increase in apprehensions of illegal immigrants crossing our southwest border from beyond mexico. particularly guatemala, honduras and el salvador over the last 10 years, roughly. there's been 266 arrests of criminal aliens in the last two fiscal years alone, and these include criminal aliens charged or convicted of assault, sex crimes and killings and those

are hardly victimless crimes. in 2017 more than 70,000 americans died of drug overdoses as meth, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl are flooding across the border and i would say probably the families of those 70,000 would argue that we certainly do have a crisis attributed to the problems at our southern border. since fiscal year 2012, c.b.p. has seized more than 11 million pounds of drugs between ports of entry. that's compared with only four million pounds at ports of entry. make no mistake, there is a crisis at our southern border. since october of last year, illegal crossings have spiked. in february alonet month president trump declared the -- alone, the month president trump declared the emergency, 76,000 people illegally crolsed the border. the -- crossed the border. the border patrol closed some borders. we need a border wall. the customs and border protection commissioner put it best when he said, this is clearly both a border security and a humanitarian crisis.

the president attempted to remedy this crisis by declaring the emergency, an action well within his statutory authority and constitutional obligation. to protect our country. i urge my colleagues to oppose this veto override and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from oregon. mr. defazio: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from new york, -- to the gentleman from new york. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. espaillat: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, madam speaker. president trump continues to push for his useless, immediate evil wall. along the southern board -- medieval wall along the southern border, despite a bipartisan vote in the house of representatives and the senate to reject this poorly invoked emergency declaration, which would rob taxpayers and funds from other programs. congress has asserted its authority but the president is using every tool he has in his tool box for his pet project. let me remind the american

people, there is no emergency in the -- on the southern border. there is no emergency, madam speaker, in the -- on the southern border. or anywhere else that warrants this wall. the head of the u.s. northern command, who is responsible for troops on the border, testified that border crossings do not pose a military threat. the refugees arriving on our border are families, mothers, fathers, with their children. they're willingly turning themselves in to request asylum from the violence and harassment from gangs they face in their home countries. no wall, no matter how high is built, would change that reality. madam speaker, this is nothing more than a naked power grab. if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle truly stand for limited executive power, i expect them all to vote to override the president's veto today. madam speaker, there is no emergency on the southern

border. thank you, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, at this time i would yield mr. mitchell from michigan two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mitchell: thank you, madam speaker. thank you, mr. chair. most americans, maybe not everyone on the other side of the aisle, won't deny we have a crisis at the border. some of my colleagues actually recognize the crisis. including the humanitarian crisis. last year i voted for a bill that would have fully funded the wall and averted the government shutdown. to no avail. my choice this term would have been to pass the six noncontroversial bills and then pass a continuing resolution for the department of homeland security so, we continue to work and negotiate on a resolution that would not put us at this point. yes, the president declared a national emergency. speaker pelosi then proceeded with a resolution condemning president trump's emergency

declaration. which was a messaging bill by the democrats. voting for it would have been plain politics, which many in this chamber chose to do. voting today without the votes to override is yet another messaging bill. yet another game of politics, which i will not support. i agree with my colleague on the other side of the aisle. it is a constitutional question. and constitutional authority, determination of that, is something left to the courts to decide. something the supreme court should decide, and not a partisan whack job in the house of representatives. if congress wishes to narrow and define more clearly the national emergency act, we should do so. and in fact i'm happy to participate in doing that. however, in the interim, we still have the issue of securing our border. it will not go away. the crisis is not going away. as my colleagues over here have indicated, it continues to be a growing problem. so why we don't spend time in addressing that, rather than one more messaging vote, which appears to be the trend right

now in the house, since january, befuddles me. i urge my colleagues to vote no on the resolution to override the stree and i urge my colleagues -- the veto and i urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, let's get to the job of dealing with the issues of the american people. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from oregon. mr. defazio: i yield two minutes to our colleague from texas, mr. castro. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. castro: thank you, madam speaker. i first want too i say thank you to my colleagues -- to say thank you to my colleagues in the house, republicans and democrats, and also in the united states senate, who voted to terminate the president's emergency declaration to build a border wall across the u.s.-mexico border. there is a humanitarian crisis at the border, but there isn't anvation and there's not an emergency -- an invasion and there's not anmental of the sort that the president speaks of. what we have here is an act of constitutional vandalism. the president trying to take the power away from the house of representatives and the u.s.

senate, the executive trying to steal the power of the purse from the congress. and if congress allows this to stand, 15, 20 years, 30 years from now we will look back upon this as a time that gave both democratic and republican presidents incredible power to ignore congress and completely go around this body to do the things that they will, in terms of domestic politics. there are landowners in texas that are going to lose their land. this is the largest federal land taking of texas land, i believe, in history. many people in texas will lose their land. many people will have their land values devalued. some of them very significantly. because of this. military construction projects in texas are also at stake. $265 million worth of texas military construction projects. at joint base san antonio, which includes those in my district,

$76 million. at fort bliss, over $50 million. over $42 million at fort hood. the red river, 71.5 million. in galveston at the naval reserve, $8.4 million. gone. because the president has decided, and this congress will have submitted to his will, to go around congress and unilaterally from a border wall -- build a border wall. even those who support a wall should agree with us that this is not the way to do it. congress funded over $1 billion. yet the president has gone around them to do more. i hope my colleagues will stand with us and override this veto. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, at this time i would yield two minutes to the gentleman from california, mr. mcclintock. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcclintock: thank you, madam

speaker. for 43 years the president of the united states has had the statutory authority granted by congress to declare a national emergency and to reprogram unobligated military construction funds to meet that emergency. 58 times previous presidents have invoked this authority to address such matters as civil unrest in sierra leone and burma. only when this president invoked his authority for the 59th time, to address the most serious national security risk our country has faced in our lifetimes, the collapse of our southern border, do we now hear protests from the left and its fellow travelers. madam speaker, under our constitution the congress appropriates money but cannot spend it. and the president spends money, but cannot appropriate it. he spends it according to laws given to him by congress. in this case, congress appropriated funds and delegated to the president precisely the

authority to spend those funds that he is now exercising. whether congress should have delegated this authority is a separate question that no one has raised in 43 years. but while that authority exists, the president has both a right and a duty to use it to defend our country. we also hear protests from the -- that the president's act will divert money from our military projects. listen to what these people are saying. they care more about defending the iraqi border than defending our own. such people should not be entrusted with the defense of our country. i stand with the president who is acting within our constitution to defend our nation and against the radical left in this house that would dissolve our borders entirely if given the chance. history warns us, the nations that cannot or will not defend their borders aren't around very long. let that not be the epitaph of the american republic or the constitution that created it. i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from oregon. mr. defazio: i yield myself such time as i may consume. just in response to the gentleman. if he had been listening, he might have heard the gentleman from texas listing bases in texas which are going to lose funds for critical military construction probablies, yet he launches off into some fantasy that we're db -- something about iraq. i didn't even quite get that part. also that we're proposing open borders. i don't know anyone on this side of the aisle who is proposing open borders. we're proposing effective, 21st century border security, for the real threats to america, like drug importations through our legal ports of entry, and a maritime drug imports that we can't intercept because we don't have the resources and we're wasting money on a stupid static wall. with that, i yield two minutes to the gentlelady from california, ms. barragan. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. bargbarg thank you. my colleague --

ms. barragan: thank you. my colleague on the other side of the aisle said this was a partisan whack job. yet congress has come together, which is rare to see these days, on a bipartisan basis in the house and on the senate to vote to terminate this alleged crisis that's happening at the border. this is a constitutional issue, this is about the separation of powers, this is about congress' ability to appropriate money and the president saying, we want something, congress doesn't give it to him, and him going around congress. . again, this is not a partisan issue. this should not be a partisan issue. my republican colleague in the senate said, and i quote, never has a president asked for funding and then had congress not provide the funding just to have the president come right back to use the national emergencies act to get around congress. this is a dangerous precedent.

this is not a messaging vote. again, on the house and the senate side, on a bipartisan basis, our colleagues are arguing today that we should stand with the president. i ask you, stand with the constitution. stand with the constitution. let's override this veto. a wall will not stop the drugs that are coming in the majority through the ports of entry. a wall will not stop migrant who is are coming to present themselves for asylum legally at the ports of entry. and a wall will not stop the inhumane treatment that migrants are receiving at the ports of entry. let's work together on a comprehensive immigration bill. let's work together to address this problem, not to fund a . ll with that i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, the president made it very clear that the wall is critical to address both national security and the humanitarian crisis. d.o.d. issued a fact sheet of the universe of projects that have not been awarded and they total more than what is needed. they total a little over $12 billion. just because a project is listed doesn't mean that the funding will be used. they only need $3.6 billion. i might add, too, that if the fiscal 2020 -- fiscal year 2020 bill is enacted on time and as requested, there is going to be no military construction project that's going to be delayed or cancelled. with that i would like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from louisiana, mr. abraham. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. abraham: thank you, madam speaker. you know, the president, he has a duty to protect our borders and our people. he has the constitution and the

law of the land on his side to declare this national emergency. democrats have blocked the appropriations for this border security, but they had no problem when president obama built 130 miles of border wall. when they play political games, 76,000 people alone in february streamed across our borders, but the united states has endured because we are a land that believes in the rule of the law. turning a blind eye to this law and opens borders sends a wrong message to the american people and our laws. madam speaker, i am a country physician that has unfortunately been in emergency rooms and in funeral homes with the families of those that have died of illegal opioid overdoses. and when we play political games with american lives and

merican families, shame on us. 85% to maybe 95% of these illegal opioids come across the southern border where we have no fence, we have no barrier for these illeem people to bring these -- illegal people to bring these drugs in. we got to secure this border with a wall. let the president secure our border. let the president protect our people, and let's vote against this veto override. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from oregon. i would yield myself such time as i may consume. i was just looking up most of the deaths many due to fentanyl and the fentanyl, of course, is all produced in china. some of it is shipped via u.p.s., fedex, and the

international postal service. and we lack the screening capability to deal with that. much of it does go to mexico and is then smuggled into the s., but it's not the classic myth of these are people carrying backpacks, you know, through remote areas of the desert where if we only put up a wall the wall would stop them from getting the drugs into the u.s. if people paid attention to the extraordinary trial of el chapo guzman in new york, which i did, there was testimony after testimony after testimony, he's bringing and they, his successors, are bringing the drugs through our ports of entry because they deal in volume and sophistication. and what are we going to do? we are going to build a medieval wall over here while they continue to flood this country by modifying pickup trucks, passenger cars, semis

to smuggle humans and drugs into the united states of america. border patrol is understaffed. border patrol does not have adequate technology. they only screen a very small percentage of the vehicles coming through. sometimes 6%. sometimes it's as high as 8%. wow. then, you got a 92% chance if ou are el chapo guzman or some other scum bag cartel from mexico getting a product in a sufficient way. why pay someone with a backpack when you can use it that way? or you can use u.p.s. or fedex. if you are chinese you can go online and find chinese selling fentanyl and find out how to get it into the united states. why are we not addressing that?

it's coming in here through many, many different ways, and this wall will do nothing, nothing to deal with that. with that i would reserve the balance of my time. oh, here we go. i would yield such time as she may consume, i think customaryly one -- customarily one minute to the speaker of the house. the speaker pro tempore: i yield one happy birthday minute to the speaker. the speaker: i rise to join my colleagues to uphold the constitution and defend our democracy once again. the house and the senate came together in great unity and bipartisanship to pass congressman joaquin castro's resolution to reject the president's lawless power grab. yet, the president chose to continue to defy the

constitution, the congress, and the will of the american people with a veto. at the birth of our democracy and revolution and the war, thomas payne wrote that that times have found us. once again, the times have found us to defend our democracy. the times have found us to restore the founders' vision of balance of power, checks and balances, co-equal branches of government, and restore congress' role as article 1, the first branch. article 1, the legislative branch. and the times have found us to honor our oath to support and defend the constitution and protect the american people. we all know that the heart of our constitution, the beauty of it all is that we have a system of checks and balances. our founders did not want a

monarchy. that's what they had rejected. they wanted a democracy, co-equal branches of government to act as a check on each other. this congress of the united tates acted to honor the constitution, our responsibility to protect and defend by passing legislation in our appropriations bill showing how in a bipartisan way congress would protect our borders. we understand our responsibility to do that. we don't take that responsibility lightly. we take it seriously. even when the legislative -- even when the president disagreed with us, he should have accepted the bipartisan, bicameral decision to proceed. he had taken pride in our shutdown of government for

about one month because he didn't get his way on the border. after one month, bipartisan, bicameral action by the congress sent him a bill just almost exactly like what he rejected in the first place. and he decided to reject congress' wisdom and congress' acting with its authority to otect our borders in a serious, effective, values-based way. so we don't take this vote here today lightly, even when the legislative branch disagrees with the executive, we respect the office the president holds and it's his right to veto legislation. but when those decisions violate the constitution, then we must be -- then that must be stopped. many of our colleagues from

across the aisle joined last month to defend our democracy by passing congressman castro's privileged resolution. that happened in the house. that happened in the united states senate. we call on all of our colleagues to simply show that the same measure of respect for our constitution today. we take an oath to the constitution, not to the president of the united states. we take an oath that we must honor. the choice is simple between partisanship and patriotism, between honoring our sacred oath or hypocritically and consistently breaking that oath. i urge a strong bipartisan yes to override this veto and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president. the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, i just need to point out that according to the

customs and border protection, there were more illegal drugs that were captured in between those ports of entry than they were at the ports of entry. in 2012, there were 11 million pounds of illegal drugs that were seized in between. again, in between those ports of entry as opposed to four million pounds at those ports of entry. you know, this is exactly why the wall is needed so that we funnel that illegal drug trafficking to those ports rather than in between those ports of entry, and it's time congress gave those individuals that are on the border risking their lives to protect the united states, give them the tools they need and that is a border wall. with that i want to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from alabama, mr. rogers, who's also the lead republican on the committee on homeland security. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. rogers: thank you, madam

speaker. i thank the chairman for the time. today, i rise in strong support of securing our borders. there is a crisis at the southwest border that can no longer be denied. have g demographics changed our border patrol agents. women and children are overwhelming border patrol facilities and undermining staff. this is 800% higher than fiscal year 2013. customs and border protection statistics indicate that border apprehensions are on pace to hit a 10-year high. human smugglers are exploiting loopholes in our broken immigration system and using children as visas to gain entry into the u.s. further, drugs are pouring through our porous borders. as you just heard the chairman mention in fiscal year 2018, customs and border protection seized almost 900,000 pounds of drugs at the border, the majority of which were seized between the ports of entry.

that includes approximately 2,000 pounds of fentanyl of which equals a lethal dose for the entire united states population. to address this crisis, we need an all-of-the-above solution to border security that includes manpower, 21st century technology, and a barrier. with this approach we will stem the flow of drugs that are destroying our communities. we will stop smugglers from crossing desert with innocent children. border security used to be bipartisan issue. i've been on the homeland security committee since it was established as a select committee after 9/11. not one time in the history of that committee has there been any partisan dispute about the need for a barrier at the wall until donald trump became president and now it's a toxic issue. i stand by president trump to keep americans safe and encourage my colleagues to do

the same. vote against the effort to override the president's veto. i thank the ranking member and yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from oregon. mr. defazio: i'd reserve. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: thank you, madam speaker. i don't have any more speakers so i'm prepared to close if the gentleman is the same. mr. defazio: i have no further speakers on our side. so, then, let's -- what is the order of closing? i believe -- do i get to close? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from missouri is recognized. mr. defazio: wait, excuse me. i'm reserving. what? yeah, right. yeah. so you go ahead and close. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, despite the majority's blind objection to anything this president does, the facts are clearly there to show that this is a real crisis. president obama agreed when he requested emergency funding in 2014 to deal with the crisis on the border. and when he declared a national

emergency because of the transactional drug traffickers. since fiscal year -- transnational drug trafficers. since fiscal year 2012, customs and border patrol has seized four million pounds, as i pointed out earlier, of drugs at ports of entry. but more than 11 million pounds of drugs between those ports of entry. nearly three times as many drugs are seized in between those ports. many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle recognize the need for a border wall. they voted to authorize the wall in 2006 and again they voted to authorize, under president obama, in 2013. last year, we passed bipartisan legislation to address the growing impacts of opioids on our communities. drugs that continue to flow into our country through our southern border. make no mistake, the opioid crisis is real. earlier this month the centers for disease control issued a report noting that deaths from fentanyl have increased from

1,663 in 2011 to 18,335 deaths in 2016. this is an increase of over 1,100%. there was bipartisan agreement that there was a drug-related crisis. but now suddenly some are calling this a manufactured crisis. the national emergencies act has been on the books since 1976, and has been used dozens of times, but now suddenly some are calling it unconstitutional. the national emergencies act is clear. it's absolutely clear. the president has the authority to act. the president is using the authority congress has given him. and the president stood firm, understanding the gravity of this crisis, and issued his first presidential veto. i stand with him and urge my colleagues to sustain the president's veto on house joint resolution 46. with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from oregon. mr. defazio: may i ask how much time remains? the speaker pro tempore: 8 1/2 minutes. mr. defazio: oh, i won't use that much. ok. thank you. i yield myself such time as i may consume. i'd like to have a quote here from someone who i think is quite prominent. when you go under, you go around, you go through it. what they need is more man power and more technology. that was the acting chief of staff for the white house when perhaps he was a little more independent as a member of the united states congress. that was august 25, 2015. i would ask, what's changed since then? well, he now works for the president. that's a change. donald trump, during his campaign, was real hard-line on immigration, but he kept forgetting to mention immigration in some of his speeches. so his staff came up with a knew

momic. they said, well, he's a builder. if we say wall, he'll remember it. and the president did. it was just an after thought. it was, how are we going to get him to give his hard line on immigration during his campaign speeches and get crousing -- rousing going? let's use the wall. the wall then became, you know, a life unto its own. as a campaign promise. not as something that's effective. as we've talked about before, the drugs, you know, use a catapult, use a drone, tunnels really, and of course illegal order crossings. this is, you know, an end conclusion to a campaign promise for his base, but not what's in the best interest of the united states of america. in terms of preventing the shipment of illegal drugs. i don't know where the gentleman

came up with that new statistic, three times as many drugs were intercepted out the ports of entry. unless he was using the coast guard, which he may have been. because the coast guard intercepted more drugs than every other agency of the federal government combined. in the maritime realm. unfortunately, as the form commandant of the coast guard said, -- former commandant of the coast guard said, we can identify 0% of the intel, -- 0% of the intel, 80% coming in in the maritime basis. the coast guard's doing a great job with inadequate resources. in the bipartisan compromise, they got some additional money for air and marine assets, they could use a heck of a lot more. why don't we get that 80%? why don't they have resources to get that 80% that they know about, and then let's get --

better intel and get the extra 20% and let's scan 100% of the vehicles coming into the border. i've been at the board when are through intuition, a border patrol agent found drug smuggling. i happened to be there today. guy drove up to the border, he had a birthday cake and a bottle of tequila on the seat. the border patrol guy said, hm, something suspicious. take the truck over there. they scoped out the gas tank, they found big blocks of drugs in the gas tank. what was -- was that because we had sophisticated technology, when the guy pulled the truck up we could use that technology? no. it was the intuition of the border patrol agent. i said, how did you know to go and, like, really search through that guy's vehicle? he said, well, there was nothing on his key ring. there was only one key in the ignition. he was a throw-away. the cartel was probably paying him $10,000 or something to drive that stolen or purchased

pickup truck across the border, concealing drugs. the human element caught that guy. there aren't enough border patrol agents. they have openings. they are not adequately compensated. they weren't paid during the shutdown. but they were still working at the border. they're the first line of defense. but they also need new technology. and we can't install that technology to scan 100% of the vehicles coming through unless we invest a lot of money in improving the border crossings, because we'll have trucks backed up 100 miles back into mexico because of the amount of commerce that comes across. so what are we going to do? we're going build a stupid static wall over there and over there and we're still going to let probably 85% of the vehicles go through without applying technology. guzman sitting in his jail cell is probably just shortling over this. he's saying, boy, are those americans stupid. why don't they get the technology they need to scan the cargo that we're hiding in very

sophisticated ways in tractor trailers, in pickup trucks, in individual passenger vehicles, why don't they intercept the drugs that are coming in through the oceans? they even know about, and they're not intercepting them. no, we're going to build a dumb wall. and by the way, when the republicans were in charge, we had a vote on that and it failed. if this was such a crisis and such a great idea when the republicans controlled the house, the senate and the white house, why didn't they make it a priority? well, they didn't make it a priority because they thought it was a stupid idea. but now it's a political thing. this is the victory for the president. it excites his base. it energizes his base. he has to have it. so he declares a national emergency. the emergency is political. it's not national security. it's not drugs. we have a humanitarian crisis at the border. yes, we do. and what is a wall going to do about that? they come to the border, they stand there and they say, we want to apply for asylum in the united states.

if they come across in a remote area, they hope they come across a border patrol agent, because they want to surrender at the moment right there and get some shelter and get medical care. they're now organizing bus loads to come up from guatemala and honduras. we're not dealing with the root problems down there, and we're not dealing with the smugglers who are now hiring very nice luxury buses as opposed to the old ride on that killer train that people used to take to come up with smugglers who would often rape them, kill them, rob them, whatever else. now they've converted to, let's put them in a luxury coach and they'll have rest stops and everything else. this has become big business. why aren't we doing something about that? the wall will do nothing about that. nothing. why, why, why are we going to waste billions of dollars on a medieval fortress that won't work? i urge my colleagues to vote and override the veto of the president of the united states, restore the integrity of the congress of the united states,

and the appropriations process under article 1 of the >> the house failed to overturn the president's first veto, leaving the declaration of a national emergency at the southwestern border intact. house speaker nancy pelosi recognized c-span's 40th anniversary. ction, the gentlewoman is recognized. the speaker: madam speaker, our founders envisioned a people's use -- the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the speaker: thank you, mr. lewis. this is very important. we're going to observe the 40th anniversary of c-span. you ready for that? are you braced for the excitement? if that's not enough for you, today is my birthday.