Border Money Up For Vote, (SB SUN 071006) Senate to Consider $31.7Billion Homeland Security Spending Bill..

The United States Government needs to take all of this very serious. Not just for the very serious Terrist Attacks that have happend or have been tried against our country. It seems that lately the Terrorist is getting more and more bold as if they need to make themselves herd over here, because they realize that the noise that they are doing over in Iraq is bad, but it is not as bad as if the terror was done over here. They also get more respect and they know that. So you can see that they are trying to get more and more done over here in the States. The Government and the National Security has been right on top of things, dispite the Democratic Party that doesn't want us to have any more security at all, because they are worried about how much milk we listen in on when they are talking to their family members on the telephone. I am one that doesnt' worry. They can listen to any part of my converstaion, and they can pull me in and ask me questions about it. I am not worried about it, but that is just me. However if they were to say that I was not allowed to write this anymore or talk and say certain things on the telephone anymore then I would have a problem with the Goverment. By them listening to airwaves are not taking away from our freedoms. I don't see what the hub bub is alll about in that regard. the democrats don't and cannot seem to get it through to me to understand their point. Sorry

BSRanch

Border money up for vote
Senate to consider $31.7 billion Homeland Security spending bill

By Lisa Friedman, Staff Writer, SB Sun

California would get $30 million for a controversial fence along the Mexican border under a Senate plan that allocates $288 million for border construction nationwide.

The measure, which also sets aside $65 million for border security --including 1,000 new Border Patrol agents --- is one of several spending bills the Senate is expected to consider this week that would provide billions of dollars to California for everything from food stamps and wildfire protection to Inland Empire perchlorate treatment.

But the $31.7 billion Department of Homeland Security measure is by far the largest and would provide some of the most direct funding for California's anti-terrorism efforts and its attempts to block illegal immigration.

The measure includes $139 million to safeguard containers coming into ports including Long Beach and Los Angeles, and $210 million for other port security initiatives.

It also carves out more than $3 billion for a range of state and local terrorism prevention grants. It remains unclear how much Los Angeles or the rest of California would get from that pot.

In a separate spending bill for nationwide energy and water projects, Sen. Dianne Feinstein secured $75.5 million for levee restoration.

Noting that a collapse of the San Joaquin Delta levees could threaten two-thirds of the state's drinking water, Feinstein said federal protection is long overdue.

The money comes on top of $30.4 million that Congress provided for the state's levee system this year.

The water bill, which also pays for Army Corps of Engineers construction projects, includes $4 million for water recycling in the South Bay; $5.5 million to help restore the Los Angeles River; $1 million to deepen the Los Angeles Harbor; and $5 million for a deepening project around the Port of Long Beach.

There's also $450,000 to study the restoration of Ballona Creek's ecosystem; $500,000 for ecosystem restoration in the Cornfields area of Los Angeles, plus $4 million for other projects in the larger Los Angeles County drainage area; $562,000 for Los Angeles River watercourse improvement; and $743,000 for a demonstration project in the San Gabriel Valley.

A final bill doling out money for land management and other Department of Interior projects targets $1 million for perchlorate treatment in the Inland Empire.

"The true scope of perchlorate contamination is still unknown. But the more we look for perchlorate contamination, the more we find it,'' she said.

About 350 of California's water sources have been contaminated with the rocket fuel substance, and Feinstein said this money will go specifically for cleanup in Rialto, Colton and Fontana.

In a Senate Appropriations Committee debate on the bill late last month, Feinstein won approval for an amendment disqualifying oil companies from bidding on future leases if they refuse to renegotiate existing leases from 1998 and 1999.

Companies have not been paying royalties to the government under those old leases, due to what lawmakers described as a administrative error that has cost $10 billion in lost revenue.

"With oil prices sky-high, it's long past time for Congress to end royalty ‘relief' for big oil and stop lining the industry's already-deep pockets,'' said Heather Taylor, deputy legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Counsel.

A similar amendment passed the House this year.

The bill also prohibits drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf in California.