Rounds, Colleagues Reintroduce Bill to Fully Fund Border Wall

Rounds, Colleagues Reintroduce Bill to Fully Fund Border Wall 

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) joined Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to reintroduce the WALL Act, legislation that would fully fund the border wall along the southern border. Their legislation, first introduced last Congress, is also the first bill that will fund the wall by identifying specific funding sources.

“The primary responsibility of the federal government is the defense of our nation, which includes strong border security,” said Rounds. “The WALL Act will provide full funding for construction of a physical barrier along our southern border to protect against illegal immigration and stop those who wish to do us harm, such as terrorists, gang members and drug dealers, from entering the United States from the south. It pays for the wall by closing existing loopholes that allow illegal immigrants to receive federal benefits and increasing fines for illegal border crossings and visa overstays. By funding the wall through increased fines, we prevent any risk of dipping into Department of Defense (DoD) funding, which is already stretched thin. I thank Chairman Inhofe for his leadership on this effort and I look forward to advancing this proposal in the Senate.”

The WALL Act will fully fund the president’s $25 billion border wall while providing specific ways to pay for it:

  • Require a work-authorized Social Security Number (SSN) to claim refundable tax credits, like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or the Child Tax Credit:

o   Currently only the child needs a SSN, not the parent benefiting from the refundable child tax credit. The WALL Act would require the parent to have a valid work-eligible social security number.

o   Before 2003, the Social Security Agency did not distinguish between work-eligible and non-work eligible SSNs. Therefore, there are individuals benefiting from the EITC they are not authorized to receive because they are non-work eligible.

  • Require welfare applicants (food stamps, TANF, HUD, etc.) to verify citizenship:

o   Currently someone only needs to “declare” citizenship and provide a SSN to receive some of these benefits.

o   The WALL Act enhances citizenship verification prior to granting benefits using E-verify and require a work-authorized SSN for eligibility.

  • Increasing the minimum fines on illegal border crossers and establishes minimum penalty for visa overstays.

 

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13 thoughts on “Rounds, Colleagues Reintroduce Bill to Fully Fund Border Wall”

  1. The good Senator should be very careful with this one. He is up for re-election and the vast majority of South Dakotans, including Republicans and Independents, simply do NOT support the government shut down over this issue. He needs to read “THE ART OF THE DEAL”. The answer to all this is found there.

    1. Are you posting this in support of open borders or what? This post is about getting the wall to help secure our border and protecting American citizens and America’s sovereignty.

  2. What’s popular isn’t always right.
    What’s right isn’t always popular.
    Sen. Rounds has made an informed decision that this is needed. He has also said he will work with anyone to get to a solution and the Democrats are the one standing in the way. This is a small amount compared to what is actually need to create a much stronger border but the Democrats view this wall as largely symbolic against immigrants.
    The reality here is that the Democrats will never go for this. Trump needs to look elsewhere and do the best he can. His speech in my opinion was largely unconvincing to anyone who was on the fence (ha ha).

    1. You may be right about not changing minds; to quote Ron White, “You can’t fix stupid”, so Chuck, Nancy and the other Dems can’t be taught a thing.

  3. Why do we have these loopholes ? Close them. There’s plenty of money elsewhere.

  4. Donald Trump would not have won election without significant Democrat support. I’m talking about rank in file Democrats who work for a living, especially the people who work in the coal and oil industries. Remember what Obama said about manufacturing; “Those jobs are never coming back.”

  5. “Donald Trump would not have won election without significant Russian support.”

    Fixed that for you.

    1. Wow, a conspiracy-theorist on the blog; what a novelty. What color is the world in which you live? Red, like your communist ideals?

  6. The only conspiracy are the conspiracy charges that Trump’s people plead guilty to. You know, for dealing with actual communists. Soon those same charges will be dropped on trump and you’ll all look like idiots for ever supporting him. How well does the Internet Research Agency pay, by the way?

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