State of Texas Considers Building Its Own Border Wall by Bob Price for Breitbart
Two members of the Texas House of Representatives are preparing a bill that would provide $2.5 billion to fund a border wall. The proposal would take the money from Texas’ “Rainy Day Fund.”
State Representatives Kyle Biedermann (R-Fredricksburg) and Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park) are working on legislation to take $2.5 billion from the Texas Economic Stabilization Fund, also known as the Rain Day Fund, to provide funding to build a border wall along the Texas border with Mexico. The proposal is still in the drafting phase, sources tell Breitbart News, but a bill could be filed soon.
A source in Rep. Biedermann’s office told Breitbart News on Tuesday that the bill is still in the planning stages but calls for the funds to be allocated to the Office of the Texas Governor, who would oversee the process of allocating funds and getting the wall built.
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The funds would be used to design, test, construct, and install physical barriers, roads, and technology along the international land border between Texas and Mexico with a goal of preventing illegal border crossings in those areas, Biedermann told Breitbart News on Sunday.
Breitbart News reached out to the offices of Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dennis Bonnen and the Department of Homeland Security for a reaction to the proposal.
A spokesman for Lt. Governor Dan Patrick responded that Governor Patrick does not support using Rainy Day Funds to build a Texas border wall. Instead, the Lt. Governor proposed that Texas invoice the federal government for the billions of dollars the state has already spent and use those receipts to pay for building a wall in Texas.
The 2017 Texas Legislature funded approximately $800 million for border security for the biennium, Breitbart News reported. The legislature increased the spending from the $300 million authorized by the 2015 legislative session. Governor Greg Abbott proposed continuing the spending level during his State of the State address last week.
