Rep Faso: I’m calling to express my strong opposition to any federal budget that funds the construction of a southern border wall. There is no benefit to building a wall, and it will cost us taxpayers billions of dollars that could be far better spent on [See List Below*].
Background (from 5Calls.org):
Trump’s budget proposal for the 2017 Fiscal Year allocates over $2.6 billion to construct a southern border wall and hire 20 attorneys to assist in taking property from Americans who own land along the border. This $2.6 billion represents less than 15% of the estimated total cost of the project, which an internal Homeland Security memo has estimated to be at least $21.6 billion to complete over 3.5 years. Despite the wall’s high cost, experts agree that it’s the opposite of a solution to the nation’s failed immigration policies.
Bipartisan opposition to the wall’s construction is emerging; Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) recently called the wall “the most expensive and least effective way to secure the border.” Furthermore, the wall will likely be deadly. The existing border walls between the US and Mexico have already forced immigrants to take more dangerous routes to enter the country, such as tunneling underneath or traveling through the desert. Studies of border deaths have found that rates of border deaths increased with each new mile of wall constructed along the border since the 1990s. The wall is a lethally bad policy that will cost taxpayers billions for years to come.
*[From the Indivisible Guide]
These are a sampling of Trump’s many proposed cuts:
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$3 billion from education programs, including cuts to after-school programs, financial aid for college students
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$1.6 billion in Housing & Urban Development Grants, including cuts to programs like Meals on Wheels
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$314 million reduction in disease prevention, funds which are used to prevent outbreaks of ebola, incidence of lead poisoning, and even to defend against bioterrorism
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$90 million in emergency response (FEMA) funding, which are used to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies
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$242 million in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funding, jeopardizing access to clean air and water
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Massive cuts to a slew of critical government agencies, including U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), and National Institute of Health (NIH)
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Elimination of arts and culture programs, including cutting all funding for PBS and eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
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