Democrats Block Motion to Stop Kamala Harris Travel Funds Until She Visits Southern Border

House Democrats blocked a motion Monday night that would have halted Vice President Kamala Harris from using taxpayer money for travel until she visits the southern border and creates a plan to deal with the crisis there.

The vice president has gone 82 days without visiting the U.S.-Mexico border after President Joe Biden appointed her to stem the migration to the U.S. southern border. Two hundred and seventeen House Democrats voted to block the previous question. Blocking the previous question would have allowed for the consideration of Rep. Ashley Hinson’s (R-IA) “See the Crisis Act.”

The bill was meant to “limit the travel” of Harris and curtail her from receiving any traveling expenses from the U.S. Treasury until she visits the southern border. More specifically, the bill, if passed, would have required Harris to visit one of the dozens of counties in states like Arizona, California, New Mexico, or Texas to see what happens at the border.

On the House floor Monday night, Hinson said her legislation would have stopped Harris “from using taxpayer dollars to travel internationally before seeing the southern border crisis firsthand.”

The Iowan called out Harris, saying she “was named as administration’s point person on the illegal immigration crisis at our southern border 80 days ago. And this crisis is worsening by the day.” She explained that Harris “refused to go to the border herself and talk to the brave law enforcement officers,” saying Harris’s “out of sight, out of mind approach is a disgrace.”

Hinson said the Biden administration has “turned on the green light at our border” since Biden, on his first day, had “stopped construction of the border wall” and “reinstated catch-and-release.” Policies like these, Hinson said, “are music to the ears of the cartels, the drug smugglers, and the traffickers who make their living on human suffering.”

Hinson continued:

Make no mistake: business is good for cartels and drug smugglers under this administration right now. Snuck into this rule is a provision to set spending levels for Congress. These historic spending levels rise in nearly every category except one – the Department of Homeland Security. And this sends a clear message to the cartels that the U.S. government doesn’t think it a priority to stop them.

…

As Members of Congress, regardless of party, it is our job to hold the administration accountable when it is failing the American people. And right now, Vice President Harris is failing the American people. She’s failing law enforcement at the border. She’s failing the families who will suffer because of drugs coming across our border and falling into the wrong hands.

Vice President Harris needs to see the crisis for herself and take action. And that is exactly what my See the Crisis Act will force her to do. This bill will prevent the vice president from traveling internationally on the taxpayers’ dime until she visits the southern border and reports back to the American people on how the administration will secure our border. So I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle tonight to join me in defeating the previous question and holding the administration accountable for the border crisis.

Breitbart News had previously reported that in May, the Border Patrol apprehensions had jumped almost 700 percent compared to the same time in 2020 under former President Donald Trump. “Agents apprehended more than 172,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico boundary, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials report.”