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.
Sierra Vista Herald –
By U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
A leading national business magazine has crowned Arizona the nation’s Solar Energy King — a prestigious honor that portends explosive growth in our state’s rush to embrace power from the sun instead of power from petroleum.
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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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 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.
Dylan Smith
Tucson Sentinel
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to boost spending on border security by $701 million.
The Senate stripped the border enforcement money from a war spending bill last Thursday. After a weeks’ pushing by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Border Security Act was passed on a voice vote Wednesday evening.
by Hank Stephenson
The Tucson Weekly
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords had some strong words for the U.S. Senate last week, after they knocked down her bill, the Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which would allot an extra $701 million to fortify the border.
“Southern Arizonans should be appalled that the United States Senate said ‘no’ to supporting the troops on the border, said ‘no’ to protecting the ranchers in my district who are threatened daily and said ‘no’ to increasing border patrol agents who would help stop the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into our country,” Giffords said in a statement last Friday.
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