House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Monday withdrew plans for bringing a Republican crafted border security bill before the House floor on Wednesday.
The House Rules Committee, which had been expected to vote late Monday afternoon on the final rule of the Secure Our Borders First Act of 2015 (H.R. 399), said on its website that “Due to the Majority Leader’s scheduling announcement, consideration of the” bill “has been postponed subject to the call of the chair.” The panel did consider a different bill having to do with permitting for liquid natural gas.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, issued a statement saying that even though the bill caters to the “extreme right wing elements of the House Republican Conference,” they “could not get on board with this legislation.” He added that the bill “calls for spending $10 billion on an unachievable goal that ignores most of our borders.”
The bill, authored by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is largely aimed at the southern border and prescribes a range of detection and surveillance technologies on a sector-by-sector basis. It also directs the establishment of a biometric exit systems at the nation’s ports of entry–air, land and sea–and calls for the Department of Homeland Security to obtain operational control of certain border areas within two years and the entire border within five years.