GOP Rep. Gooden: Omnibus ‘Hurt our Leverage’ on Border, Now We Have to Wait Until September

On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) stated that while he thinks holding hearings and conducting fact-finding on the border and immigration policy will be important, the omnibus spending bill that was passed with the help of Senate Republicans the leverage hurt the incoming House Republican majority will have to force the Biden administration’s hand on the border “Because now we’ve got to wait until September when the next funding runs out before we can actually use the purse strings as leverage against this administration.”

Gooden stated that under a House Republican majority, “I think you’ll see, starting next week, the beginning of some real fact-finding, some real action. Unfortunately, this multi-trillion dollar bill that was passed last week with the help of Senate Republicans, that hurt our leverage a bit. Because now we’ve got to wait until September when the next funding runs out before we can actually use the purse strings as leverage against this administration. But I do believe the hearings are important. I believe that being able to compel members of the Biden administration to testify and answer the hard questions is an important step.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett