For Immediate Release – October 20, 2009
Contact: Oliver Bernstein, Sierra Club, 512.477.2152
Sierra Club Cheers Approval
of "No Border Wall" Homeland Security Funding Bill
Statement from Sierra Club Washington
Representative Michael Degnan
Washington, D.C. -- Today, the U.S. Senate passed H.R.2892, the Department
of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2010, sending the bill to President
Obama’s desk. The bill passed out of Congress without a provision mandating
construction of additional border walls, marking the first time that a proposal
to build more border walls was defeated in Congress. A border wall provision
offered by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), included in the Senate bill, was stripped
during conference with the House of Representatives.
In response, Sierra Club Washington Representative Michael Degnan
issued the following statement:
"Today’s action marks the first time that a border wall proposal has been
defeated in Congress. We congratulate the Congress for rejecting an
irresponsible proposal to build more than 300 more miles of unnecessary border
walls.
"Our government has already poured billions of dollars into building walls
and barriers across 600 miles of the U.S./Mexico border. Although the
effectiveness of these walls has never been measured, the negative impacts to
communities and wildlife is clear. Border walls have separated families, caused
damaging floods and erosion, and fractured habitat and migration corridors vital
to wildlife that has been pushed to the brink of extinction.
"We hope that this historic action signals a readiness to permanently move
our country’s border policy beyond construction of costly and destructive border
walls."
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