{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/leahy-slams-border-wall-funding-as-bumper-sticker-budgeting", "Leahy Slams Border Wall Funding As Bumper Sticker Budgeting", "2017-11-21", "2017", "2017-11", "Democrat", "House", "VT", "Patrick Leahy", "L000174", "www.leahy.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "11.21.17\n\t\t\t Leahy Slams Border Wall Funding As \u201cBumper Sticker Budgeting\u201d \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tSlamming the proposal as \u201cbumper sticker budgeting,\u201d Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Tuesday focused on a provision in the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill that would provide $1.6 billion from American taxpayers for President Trump\u2019s border wall with Mexico.\u00a0\r\nLeahy said: \u00a0\u201cThis is bumper sticker budgeting to save face for one of President Trump\u2019s failed campaign promises.\u00a0 Instead of wasting billions of taxpayer dollars to fund this costly and ineffective proxy for real action on immigration reform, we should be directing our resources toward finding cures for cancer, building schools for our children, feeding the hungry, rebuilding our infrastructure and real security.\u00a0 We should be investing in what brings us together, not building walls that drive us apart.\u201d\r\nPlaced in strategic locations identified by the Department of Homeland Security as being in need of additional security to prevent illegal border crossings or other illicit activities, the United States already has 654 miles of pedestrian fencing or vehicle barriers along its southern border.\u00a0 The additional 74 miles of President Trump\u2019s border wall proposed in the appropriations bill is estimated to impact 900 landowners and cost as much as $22 million per mile.\u00a0 With legal disputes still ongoing from border wall construction a decade ago in Texas, the legal costs of new construction are expected to be astronomical and drawn out over years.\r\nWith illegal border crossings on the decline and apprehensions along the southern border reaching historic lows, Leahy argued that American tax dollars should be spent elsewhere and invested in the American people.\u00a0 If the bill had gone through markup in the full Senate Appropriations Committee, Leahy would have offered an amendment that would have blocked funding for the wall unless it was paid for by Mexico, as President Trump promised.\r\nLeahy said: \u00a0\u201cPresident Trump ran on a clear campaign promise \u2013 he was going to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and Mexico would pay for it.\u00a0 He could not have been clearer. \u00a0I have also been clear about how I feel about this misguided campaign promise.\u00a0 Building a wall along our southern border is a waste of taxpayer dollars and an insult to our neighbor to the South.\u00a0 From every perspective, this costly wall is an unwelcome turkey.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t Press Contact \n\t\t\t\tDavid Carle: 202-224-3693\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\t\n\t\n\t\n  \n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tNext Article\n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/leahy-slams-border-wall-funding-as-bumper-sticker-budgeting"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0366318747401237, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}