Congressman John Culberson Leads The Way On Sanctuary Cities

By Federale

08/01/2016

In an astounding display of backbone and understanding of the murky details of the budgeting process, Congressman John Culberson is moving to bring about the end of the Sanctuary Cities.

The ever intrepid Brenda Walker has recently exposed the hundreds of millions of dollars received by Sanctuary Cities to pay for law enforcement activities and the detention of illegal aliens, the problem that Culberson is looking to solve.

Sanctuary cities are another terrible immigration policy that has brought preventable crime and death to America, yet the practice continues because powerful elites want cheap labor and open borders. As a result, the notion of America being a “nation of laws” has suffered enormously, along with the unnecessary carnage.

After the Steinle murder, San Francisco doubled down on its sanctuary policy to protect illegal alien criminals rather than stand for public safety.

For a recent update about the issue, see the July 29 memo from America’s Senator Jeff Sessions: DOJ Inspector General Finds Sanctuary Jurisdiction Policies Violate Federal Law.

[Lawbreaking Sanctuary Cities Nevertheless Receive Hundreds of Millions of Taxpayer Dollars, by Brenda Walker, July 31, 2016]

But in some long overdue good news, John Culberson has decided to actually fight this aspect of the Obama Regime Administrative Amnesty, unlike the cuckservative Paul Ryan.

The shocking aspect of the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (DOJ OIG) report detailing the expanding Sanctuary Cities is that it ends any debate over what the Treason Lobby has long claimed doesn’t exist. [Exploding the Myth of Sanctuary Cities, by Ruben Navarrette, Jr., Daily Beast, August 3, 2015] It has provided the fodder for the clever move by Congressman John Culberson, all by himself, to end Sanctuary Cities by a clever application of annual budget laws and the more esoteric rules regarding the reprogramming of funds.

Reprogramming is an obscure aspect of the funding of government agencies and departments which gives department heads the authority to move monies from one budget line item to another. It is quite commonly used, but has to be authorized by Congress, as the Executive branch is prohibited by the Constitution from spending money not authorized by Congress.

In most cases, a particular agency or department may move money around with the permission of the sub-committee chairman that has oversight jurisdiction over that particular agency or department, in this case Culberson as Chairman of the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee. However, Culberson has decided not to give routine reprogramming authority to the DOJ, which will basically bring the whole DOJ to a screeching halt.

If the Attorney General will not step up and change the Federal grant process to prevent funding from the DOJ from flowing to these jurisdictions, then as the new chairman of the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee, I will be compelled to object to relevant portions of the Department’s spending plan and reprogramming requests …

Thanks to the following language included in the fiscal year 2016 omnibus appropriations bill I can:

  1. Section 740 nullifies the effect of the President’s budget proposal, and requires the DOJ to spend money only as appropriated and directed by Congress.
  2. Section 534 requires every agency under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies to submit a spending plan to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees by February 1, 2016.
  3. Section 505 establishes the procedures for reprogramming funding.
  4. Language on pages 4-5 of the House Report explains the reprogramming procedures.
Ending Funding for Sanctuary Cities, Press Release Office of Congressman John Culberson, February 6, 2016
Furthermore, Culberson has drawn a line in the sand with Fiscal Year 2017 funding for the DOJ as a whole:
If the Attorney General fails to stop funding from the DOJ from flowing to sanctuary cities, then I will include language in the fiscal year 2017 CJS appropriations bill prohibiting the award of law enforcement grants to jurisdictions that harbor illegal aliens.

This is a complicated problem with a simple solution. State and local law enforcement agencies should not receive Federal law enforcement grant money unless they are in compliance with Federal law.

You can listen to Culberson explain the process during an interview with Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy.

This could deal a significant blow to Sanctuary Cities and States, as the actions by Culberson and the DOJ OIG are retroactive.

That means that for long as Sanctuary Cities and States have been receiving DOJ monies, they are liable to not only stop their behavior from the date of the DOJ OIG report, but to refund all monies spent while acting illegally as sanctuaries for illegal aliens.

This will blow a huge hole in their already shaky budgets. Chicago runs at a perpetual deficit and San Francisco will have to return millions of dollars that it has committed to other spending.

Sounds like I know who the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security should be.

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