HR 2593 - The Borderlands Conservation and Security Act of 2007 Protecting the Rio Grande Valley Should Move Forward
The recent flagrantly disingenuous behavior of U.S. Representatives Duncan R-San Diego and Tancredo R-Colorado to citizens at a hearing in Brownsville has not gone unnoticed. A bill sponsored by a coalition of border Congressional representatives should get more attention. More Congressional sponsors signed on to the bill in April and its being referenced in other pending legislation before Congress. Currently there are 47 co-sponsors.
The Borderlands Conservation and Security Act sponsored by Representatives Raul Grijalva D-Arizona,Valley Congressmen Rueben Hinojosa and Henry Cuellar, as well as others is now set to be heard by the Congressional Subcommittee on Border, Maritime, and Global Counterterrorism. This important legislation will remove the environmental waivers now in effect for the United States-Mexican border fence, allow for land managers, local officials, and local communities to have a say in border security decisions, requiring full public notice and participation. Creation of a Borderlands Conservation Fund to help initiatives that mitigate damage to borderland habitat and wildlife is provided.
This bill provides for flexibility rather than a one size fits all approach to border security by allowing experts at the Department of Homeland Security to decide whether fences, virtual fences, border barriers or other options are the best way to address border security.
A text of the bill is linked at Library of Congress http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.2593: