Vermont Business Magazine Early this morning, U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) voted against Republicans’ budget reconciliation package, which funds the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without any commonsense and necessary reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Senator Welch proposed several amendments and changes to Senate Republicans’ budget package, focused both on reforming DHS and addressing the affordability crisis confronting rural America. Republicans blocked amendments to the bill throughout the Senate’s 18-hour long series of votes, including amendments to block President Trump’s slush fund, the so called “anti-weaponization fund,” which would give millions to January 6 insurrectionists.
Senator Welch released the following statement:
“The American people have asked Congress time and time again to reform the Department of Homeland Security, but my colleagues across the aisle—again—refused. Instead, they passed yet another massive funding package for ICE and CBP with no reforms or guardrails. It’s outrageous,” said Senator Welch. “The Senate made no progress on reforms to improve safety or end the president’s mass deportation campaign. The Senate made no progress to lower grocery costs, drug costs, energy costs, or anything that would make life more affordable for families. And the Senate did nothing to rein in this administration’s corruption—in fact, Republicans gave the president’s $1.8 billion slush fund a green light.”
“Our fight to reform DHS isn’t over—the president’s mass deportation campaign must end. I’ll keep working in the Senate to make meaningful, commonsense reforms to our immigration system, lower costs, and tackle corruption on behalf of Vermonters,” Welch concluded.
Senator Welch’s proposed amendments to make Americans safer and combat corruption in the Trump Administration would:
- Prohibit DHS from conducting on-farm immigration enforcement activities;
- Ensure that DHS is complying with all DHS Office of the Inspector General investigations;
- Prohibit the use of intrusive electronic and facial recognition surveillance tools by federal immigration agencies and prohibit the use of generative AI tools by immigration agents to write incident reports related to their interactions with civilians;
- Prohibit people who were convicted for actions related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, from federal employment;
- Require that the Administration publish information about recidivism of recipients of individuals President Trump has pardoned;
- Limit the use of FBI Director luxury travel and require the FBI to maintain a record of all flights taken by the FBI Director.
- Require DHS to disclose documents related to contracts awarded to companies with deep ties to former Secretary Kristi Noem as part of her $220 million advertising campaign;
Senator Welch’s proposed amendments to lower costs and make rural America more affordable included amendments to:
- Support community health centers and lower prescription drugs costs by making more drugs eligible for Medicare price negotiations;
- Provide relief for farmers affected by increased costs of fertilizer, fuel, and other input costs as a result of the Iran War;
- Provide funding for rural communities detrimentally impacted by a significant reduction in international tourism in 2025 and 2026;
- Require that DHS prioritizes providing tariff refunds to small businesses first and provide relief for tariff-related cost increases to household staples, such as food and paperware;
Senator Welch’s proposed amendments to support clean energy and help communities recover from natural disasters would:
- Help FEMA accelerate the delivery of disaster response and mitigation assistance to rural communities and allow FEMA to increase the capacity of rural communities to better respond to natural disasters;
- Help FEMA implement climate and resiliency programs and prevent the Secretary of Energy from using emergency authorities to order continued use of uneconomical fossil fuel power plants;
- Invest in improvements to water and wastewater infrastructure, energy efficiency, business development, and high-speed internet infrastructure in rural communities;
- Lower the price of energy by extending the tax credits for solar and wind projects.
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Vermont Business Magazine