CQ Today Online News | Homeland Spending Bill Set for Floor Consideration

The House could consider its fiscal 2013 Homeland Security appropriationsbill late this week, but floor debate might focus more on authorizationissues than spending levels.During its Appropriations Committee markup, Democrats raised objectionsto language in the bill (HR 5855) that would require Immigration andCustoms Enforcement to maintain a minimum number of detention beds, andwould prohibit the agency from funding abortions for detainees, except incertain limited circumstances. Homeland Security Subcommittee rankingmember David E. Price of North Carolina said last week that he plans toraise those issues again during floor debate for the $39.1 billion bill.³Including these types of spending floors and mandates in bill languagelimits the department¹s flexibility to respond decisively to immigrationchallenges and is likely to waste taxpayer dollars for no good reason,²Price told CQ last week.In fiscal 2012, Congress set a statutory ³floor² of 34,000 ICE detentionbeds, a level the new spending bill would maintain. The agency, however,has requested a reduction of 1,200, saying it would prefer to invest inmore flexible options, such as alternatives to detention programs.Price took the administration¹s side, noting that the beds cost roughly$1.5 billion annually, and that other prison and detention systems aren¹tgiven similar congressional mandates. Chairman Robert B. Aderholt ofAlabama, however, has said he wants the beds to stay in, calling theadministration¹s request part of a ³disturbing trend² on immigration thatincludes ICE creating policies that give its officers prosecutorialdiscretion in their enforcement.³I don¹t see there¹s any reason that ICE could not utilize 34,000 beds,²he said during a markup earlier this year.The abortion language dominated the full committee¹s markup, with severalDemocrats accusing the bill¹s GOP authors of including a deliberatelyprovocative, political provision. Aderholt responded that the bill wasonly codifying what had been a long-term practice for ICE.