Today, Gus cosponsored H.R. 4987, the Fence by Date Certain Act, which would require the construction by next June of a border fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

Congress previously directed the Department of Homeland Security to build nearly 700 miles of double-layered fence to keep aliens and terrorists from crossing unobstructed across the Southwest border. The Department has been slow to meet the objectives Congress specified, and funding has been inadequate, which is why one of Gus’s first acts in Congress was to sign a letter to President Bush demanding adequate fence funding.

Worse yet, provisions were included in the massive budget bill that Congress passed late last year that would undermine its construction by imposing burdensome bureaucratic mandates on the Department while removing dictates about where and by when the fence must be built.

The bill Gus cosponsored today specifies where the fence should be built, how it should be constructed, and when it should be completed. The bill also authorizes the necessary funding to build the fence at those locations in that manner.