Mandatory Operational Control Reporting and Performance Measures Act of 2012

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6025) to provide for annual reports on the status of operational control of the international land and maritime borders of the United States and unlawful entries, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I might consume.

Among the enumerated powers of the Constitution, providing for the common defense is, in my mind, the most important responsibility of this Congress. A key part of the common defense is ensuring that we secure our Nation's borders, and in the coming months, determining how to measure progress along the thousands of miles--north, south, and coastal--will be absolutely crucial.

H.R. 6025, the Mandatory Operational Control Reporting and Performance Measures Act of 2012, requires that the Department of Homeland Security resume reporting miles of the border under operational control and provide an estimate of the number of unlawful entries between ports of entry.

For years, we relied on operational control as a proxy for border security. It really became sort of the de facto term of art that indicated how much or how little of the border the Border Patrol could effectively control. But at last count, only 44 percent of the southwest border was under operational control, and less than 2 percent of the northern border was adequately secured.

I'm not quite sure how we can go from having less than half of the border under operational control to get to the current thinking that the border is more secure than ever, as the Secretary of Homeland Security has said, without having a legitimate way to measure border security.

In 2010, the Department of Homeland Security stopped reporting the number of miles of border under operational control with the promise of a new, more holistic measure of border security called the Border Condition Index. Nearly 3 years later, we're still waiting for the introduction of that measure without any idea if it will ever be used.

It's time for the Department to provide a suitable measure that adequately captures the security situation on the border, whether that is the Border Condition Index or something else. Until then, the Department should resume reporting miles under operational control.

To ensure that the numbers DHS gives us are sound, this bill, Mr. Speaker, requires that the Department give the Government Accountability Office access to the operational control numbers for third-party verification.

I fully understand that the leadership of the Department believes operational control, as it is currently configured, is not the right measure to describe security at the border. So I think we are all really open to new, more robust standards if it supplements operational control and better describes the level of security at our borders. But we can't just take this administration's word for it that the border is more secure than ever without some agreed upon standard.

To that point, I'm not sure that we should automatically assume that any new measure stacks up against operational control. With an issue this important, we can't just change the rules if we don't like the results.

Under this bill, the use of anything other than operational control to describe the security along the border must be vetted by a national laboratory with prior expertise in border security. Validation by a third party to ensure it accurately measures security along the border boils down to this: trust, but verify.

In testimony, the Government Accountability Office has been clear that the use of apprehensions of aliens at or near the border as a proxy for border security is, at best, incomplete. It tells us that we are catching lots of people, but it doesn't answer the most important question: How effective are we at keeping the drug cartels, human traffickers, and others from crossing our borders at will?

H.R. 6025 asks the Department to address this issue with an estimate of the number of unlawful entries between ports of entry so that the American people can put the apprehension numbers in the proper context and can stack apprehensions against the number of people who successfully cross the border illegally.

Mr. Speaker, the men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection have a very difficult job, and I certainly want to thank them, as I'm sure we all do, for the very hard work that they do in some very demanding conditions to keep secure our Nation.

How we determine or measure what a secure border looks like has been the subject of a lot of debate, but the fact remains that the Congress and the American people should have a verifiable way to determine if we are making progress along the border.

I ask my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thought I had another speaker, but I do not see him here. If the gentleman from Mississippi has no further speakers, I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, I would just ask my colleagues to support this legislation that moves us toward a more full understanding of the security situation along the border.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to debate H.R. 6025, the ``Mandatory Operational Control Reporting and Performance Measures Act of 2012,'' which provides for annual reports to Congress from the Secretary of Homeland Security on the status of operational control of the international land and maritime borders of the United States, as well as, unlawful entries through those borders.

As a Ranking Member of Homeland Security Committee Transportation Subcommittee, I recognize the essential role that the Committee and this Congress play in securing our borders from terrorism, drug trafficking, and illegal immigration. This goal involves the substantial efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement, as well as Congressional creation of effective border policy. I recognize that this bill seeks to provide additional information to Congress that will be helpful to that process going forward.

Section 2 of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to ``take all actions the Secretary determines necessary and appropriate to achieve and maintain operational control over the entire international land and maritime border of the United States.'' The section defines operational control to mean ``the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband.''

As the Representative for the 18th Congressional District in Houston, Texas, border security and integrity are of paramount importance to both me and my constituents. The Port of Houston is a 25-mile-long complex of public and private facilities located just a few hours' sailing time from the Gulf of Mexico. Its services link Houston with 1,053 ports in 203 countries.

The port is ranked first in the United States in foreign waterborne commerce, second in total tonnage, and sixth in the world. It generates about $11 billion annually and provides over 287,000 direct and indirect jobs in Texas. As the port plays such a large role in the US economy it is crucial that we maintain its integrity and security.

H.R. 6025 is designed to gauge the performance of the Department in achieving operational control, so that Congress may provide additional legislation, tools, and resources as necessary.

More specifically, this bill will provide for annual reports on (1) the number of miles of the international land and maritime border between the United States and Canada and the United States and Mexico that are under operational DHS control, cumulatively and by sector; and (2) the estimated number of individuals who unlawfully enter the United States annually, the estimated number of individuals unlawfully present in the United States as of the date of each such report, and the number of individuals unlawfully present in the United States who voluntarily exited the United States in the preceding year.

Border security and immigration enforcement are enormous tasks requiring extensive resources. The Federal Government aims to, and must, work with State and local authorities to share the responsibilities and the common goal of a safe and secure America.

Despite the many examples of successful initiative and cooperative efforts, there are plenty of legitimate concerns that must be taken into account when discussing the best

way to ensure that America's borders are secure. Significant improvements in technology and infrastructure have been made to the efforts the Federal Government is making to improve border security and immigration enforcement. Reports like the one proposed today are important to achieving our long term goals.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6025, a bill to require the Department of Homeland Security to resume reporting operational control as a measure of border security.

I thank the gentlelady from Michigan and her staff for working with me on this bill and for bringing it to the floor today.

As part of the 2004 Border Strategy, the Border Patrol has been reporting miles of the border under operational or effective control and included it in its annual performance reporting.

However, as of fiscal year 2010, the metric has no longer been reported, with the Department instead relying on reporting apprehensions which tell only a part of what's happening at the border and planning for the yet to be rolled out ``Border Condition Index.''

In fact, the Department's recently released 2012-2016 Border Strategy makes no reference to operational control or any other readily reportable metrics to evaluate border security.

Far be it from me to ascribe a motive to the situation the Administration has created regarding the border security metrics they are or are not employing, but it certainly looks like they would simply prefer to ignore data that doesn't support their ``border is safer than ever'' narrative.

Sadly, for those living in border communities, there is some daylight between that narrative and reality and for that reason I urged the Department to resume using operational control during this year's appropriations process.

In speaking with Arizonans making their living on the border, I continue to hear story after story of break-ins, run-ins with armed groups crossing the border, and other dangerous situations.

In recent days much has been made about apparent momentum that is building towards Congress finding solutions to the problems created by our broken immigration system.

I have said it before and I'll say it again: there is little hope of the American public--particularly in border communities--trusting the Federal Government to deal with the many pressing immigration issues if we cannot get it right when it comes to border security.

There is simply no tackling immigration reform without achieving operational control of our southern border, and the Federal Government can't achieve operational control if they can't define it.

This legislation is simple; it would direct the Department to resume reporting operational control exactly as they had been previously.

If Congress and the Administration are in indeed serious about getting about the business of addressing the issue of border security, the successful passage of this common-sense and noncontroversial bill is the least we can do

I urge adoption of H.R. 6025.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6025, the Mandatory Operational Control Reporting and Performance Measures Act of 2012, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The bill before the House today would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to report annually to the relevant congressional committee on the number of miles of our international land and maritime borders that are under operational control and, number two, the estimated number of unlawful entries between ports of entry along our international land and maritime borders.

The Department of Homeland Security already tracks much of this data, and I have no objections to it being provided to Congress in our effort to better secure our borders.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

I have no further speakers.

Mr. Speaker, as I have no further speakers, I yield back the balance of my time.