Secure Fence Act of 2006 - Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

SECURE FENCE ACT OF 2006--MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - September 21, 2006)

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I would just like to add to what my colleague from Arizona has said about the importance of border security. One of the clear priorities in the debate about immigration is what are we going to do to take steps to ensure that we stem the flow of illegal immigration in this country. The Senator from Arizona has been a great leader on this issue. I commend him for that. Of course his State is right down there on the border. But, ironically, even in my State, the State of South Dakota, which is somewhat removed from the border, we are experiencing the effects, some of the negative effects of immigration.

In fact, I had a meeting not long ago with law enforcement personnel in my State--State, Federal, local law enforcement--to talk about the methamphetamine issue which has become a real epidemic in my State like it has in many other places. In fact, methamphetamine arrests were up 45 percent last year in Sioux Falls, which is our biggest city. There is what is known as the I-29 corridor, from Sioux City to Sioux Falls, beyond to South Dakota, and up into North Dakota. It has become afflicted with the methamphetamine crisis.

As I met with them, one of the things that became very clear is that much of what is driving the methamphetamine scourge in our area of the country is people who have come here illegally. It is illegal immigrants who come in and set up these distribution systems in this country, and they are targeting the Indian reservations. There have been a number of stories about how the methamphetamine--if you want to call them cartels or whatever--have looked for places in the United States where they have wide open space, which we have on our reservations in South Dakota and we do not have sufficient law enforcement to necessarily keep up with some of those problems. They are targeting Indian reservations.

I talked to one law enforcement individual from one of the reservations who said they had just sent back somebody who had come into this country, broken the law on the reservation, for the ninth time. That is how easy it has become to get in and out of this country illegally. That is why it is important this issue be addressed.

I understand there are differences of opinion in the Senate about how to address this; whether or not we ought to have a comprehensive approach or how we deal with those who are already here illegally. I think those are all points of debate and issues we need to continue to discuss and resolve. But we have to start fundamentally with stopping the problem now. The people of this country expect us to act. It is a matter of national security.

We have the possibility of terrorist organizations using our open, porous border as an opportunity to get a foothold in this country. As I have said, we have a lot of law enforcement issues related to people who come here illegally and then commit illegal acts--the methamphetamine incidents I talked about in South Dakota being one example. But, clearly, we need to start sealing, securing this southern border to make sure the people of this country have confidence that we are taking the steps necessary to stem the flow of illegal immigration and to get this issue under control.

I appreciate the work the chairman of the Budget Committee and others have done to put more resources and funds toward that because I think it has made a profound difference already. But, frankly, this legislation we are considering today is important because it will send a loud, clear message to the people in this country that we are serious about this issue of illegal immigration, starting with securing the border.

The other issues that follow from that we can debate. There is an agreement on that. I think the one thing there is agreement on, the one thing people in this country want to see action on now is let's get this border secure. So this border security bill that has come over from the House and is being debated in the Senate, I hope we will get a vote on it and be able to pass it through the Senate and put something on the President's desk that will move us in the right direction, a direction that will discourage people from coming here illegally. The thing we want to do is discourage people from coming here illegally.

I say that as a person one generation removed from immigrant status. My grandfather and great-uncle came here from Norway in 1906. We are a nation of immigrants. People come for the same reason they did: they want to experience the American dream.

We are a welcoming nation, and we are also a nation of laws. We need to enforce those laws, and this legislation moves us in that direction. It deals with what is the first priority in this debate, and that is securing the American border so that not only from a national security standpoint, a law enforcement standpoint but, frankly, just so people in this country know and people in other countries in the world who want to come here illegally know that we are a nation of laws, and we are going to enforce those laws.

That is where this debate should start. This will give us an opportunity to do something about which I think there is broad agreement. We can address the other issues in due time, but right now, in the time we have left in the Senate before we adjourn, it is important we address this issue.

I want to speak to one other matter. I came to the floor yesterday, and I want to follow up on something I said.

For anybody who watched the comments at the United Nations made by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, it should have removed any doubt about the importance of American energy independence. We need to become energy independent. We get a million barrels of oil a day from Venezuela. This is a country whose leader was spewing hatred at the United States; someone who, in the past, has said that the President and his administration were responsible and behind the 9/11 attacks.

This is a country, and many of the other countries like that one, where we get the majority of our energy. They are countries that are hostile to the United States. They want to use the leverage they have as a political weapon against the United States.

The way we avoid that from happening is America becomes energy independent. We need more sources of American energy. We need to take steps so that we have the supply in this country that will enable us to meet the needs that we have in our economy, without having to get energy from the Middle East or from Venezuela, OPEC, other countries that have very hostile intentions toward the United States.

Yesterday, I came down here to talk about a bill that will move us in that direction. I have legislation that is pending in the Senate. It has passed the House. As a matter of fact, it passed the House by a huge margin, 355 to 9, broad bipartisan support coming from the House. It comes here from the Senate. Senator Salazar and I have a substitute amendment to that which has been cleared by the Republicans in the Senate. The House has said as soon as we send it back to them they will pass it and it will be put on the President's desk. But we have a series of secret holds on the Democratic side in the Senate.

I know that is part of the tradition of the Senate. I don't happen to think it is a good part of the tradition of the Senate, that people can put a secret hold on a bill and you don't have any idea who has a hold on it, what their issues are. I have my suspicions, since this is an even-numbered year, about why some of these holds are being placed on this bill. Nevertheless, it has the relevant committee's blessing. It has been approved by the committees here.

As I said, we have cleared all the traps on the Republican side of the aisle in the Senate. So the legislation is ready to be passed, sent back to the House, sent to the President, and signed into law. But we have a series of secret holds on the Democratic side in the Senate. That is wrong. Whatever the motivations are, this is policy that is important to the country.

I just mentioned the issue of energy security, of energy independence. This is an issue that strikes at the very heart and core of almost every issue we are debating in the country today, whether it is the economy and the cost of energy, whether it is national security, foreign policy--energy, the fact that we depend upon foreign sources for our energy supply in this country, is a very serious and vexing problem. We have to address it. We need to put policies in place that will create more supply here in America.

This legislation, again, very briefly--to explain it because I explained a little bit yesterday--fills the distribution gap that we have in the area of renewable energy. We passed an energy policy last summer. Part of our policy is a renewable fuels standard which guarantees a market for ethanol and other types of bioenergy. We now have a lot of plants around the country that are operating at full capacity, producing ethanol. We have plants under construction. My State of South Dakota has been at the forefront of that movement, but we will very shortly be at a billion gallons a year production of ethanol.

The problem we have is we do not have a way of getting it to the consumer in this country because we don't have enough refueling stations, gas stations, and convenience stores that have installed the pumps that are necessary to deliver E85 to consumers in this country.

This was an ad that was run in one of the local publications here, Congress Daily. I saw it a few days ago. I saw it again today in that same publication. It is put out by the Auto Alliance. The Auto Alliance in this country, which represents the major car manufacturers, is very much supporting this legislation. What this ad says is that there are 9 million alternative fuel autos in this country today--and counting: 9 million cars in America today that are what we call flex-fuel vehicles; that is, they are capable of running either on traditional gasoline or E85 ethanol. Nine million vehicles--they are ramping up, building, and manufacturing more flex-fuel vehicles. If you watch the television advertisements today and you see the auto manufacturers run their advertising, they are talking more and more about flex-fuel vehicles. This is an important priority for the auto industry. They have the cars that are out there that are capable of using E85. The problem is, there are not enough filling stations that have it available.

In their letter that they sent in support of this bill, the Alliance of Auto Manufacturers says--and I used the number yesterday. This is a slightly different number, but it is in the ballpark. I said there were 600 gas stations in this country that offer E85 out of a total of 18,000. In their letter they say 830 gas stations, so maybe it has gone up a little bit, out of the total number of gas stations in the country that have E85 ability.

There are 9 million vehicles and counting that can run on flex fuel using E85 or other bioenergy--only using the high number of 830 refueling stations where they can get that.

In the Midwest where I am from, in South Dakota, we have a number of filling stations that make E85 available. But that is the exception and not the rule.

Our bill provides an incentive for these refuelers to install E85 pumps, not just E85. This isn't just an ethanol issue; other alternative energy types of fuels can be used. But it provides an incentive for them to install pumps to make renewable energy and alternative sources of energy more readily available to consumers in this country. It does it very simply by providing grants up to $30,000 per pump at the gas station. Because they can install more than one, they can take advantage of the incentive more than once. If they install an E85 pump, they can get up to $30,000 to do that. The cost of installing one of those pumps, depending on where you are in the country, is between $40,000 and $200,000.

The simple fact is, this incentive will go a long way. As has been noted, and as I said, the auto manufacturers sent a letter supporting the bill, as has the National Association of Convenience Stores which represents all of the gas stations around the country. They are supporting this; the auto manufacturers are supporting this.

It does not affect the budget because we paid for it. The way we paid for it is by using the fines that are paid by foreign auto manufacturers for violations of fuel efficiency standards. Take a fine which has been paid and apply those dollars toward a program that provides incentives for fuel retailers to install five pumps and other pumps that offer other forms of alternative energy.

But, frankly, as I said before, it is an important priority. We have auto manufacturers making the cars, ethanol producers that are producing the ethanol, you have consumers in this country who want this product, and you have a requirement now, because of the renewable fuels standard that we passed last year and put into law in the Energy bill, that States meet those standards. You have all of these things clicking. And Hugo Chavez comes to the United States and at the U.N. in a vitriolic way attacks our country and our leaders. Here we are getting a million barrels of oil a day from that country.

We need American energy. We need to be energy independent. We need to move America in a direction toward the future and take us away from relying on the traditional sources of energy.

We get almost 55 percent of our energy from outside the United States--and that has to change.

This legislation is broadly supported. It came out of the House by a vote of 355 to 9. It is broadly supported.

I have had Senators from both sides of the aisle come up to me--and, of course, I said it is cleared on the Republican side. I have had Democratic Senators say they really support the legislation. This is a good thing.

Again, I am at a loss--it is a mystery to me--to try to explain why anyone would be opposed to this. The only thing I can suggest is there are perhaps some election year motivations. I don't know the answer to that. I hope that is not the case.

This is the right thing to do for the country. It is the right policy to put in place for America's future. I call on my colleagues on the Democratic side who have these anonymous, secret holds--we don't know who is holding it up. I wish I knew the answer to that. I would love to have them come down here and defend their position because there is absolutely no logical reason anybody would object to this piece of legislation which implements policy, consistent with the energy policy that we adopted last summer, the renewable fuels standard, and make available for people in this country E85 ethanol.

There are 9 million automobiles in this country and counting that can run on E85. If you use the generous estimate, there are 850 refueling stations. That is a terrible gap. We need to fill that gap in the distribution system in this country. This legislation would do that.

It is ready for action in the House, and it is ready to go to the President for his signature.

But we have, as I said, some anonymous and secret holds on the Democrat side preventing this legislation from moving forward.

I ask my colleagues--I urge my colleagues--on the other side of the aisle to release those holds and allow this bipartisan legislation, this important legislation, to get to the President's desk so we can begin to lessen our dependence on foreign sources of energy, on dictators, and countries like Venezuela and Iran, and have American-grown energy that will make America independent as we head into the future.

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