SEC. 2010. OPERATION STONEGARDEN.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT .—There is established in the Department a program to be known as ‘Operation Stonegarden’, under which the Secretary, acting through the Administrator, shall make grants to eligible law enforcement agencies, through State administrative agencies, to enhance border security in accordance with this section.
Well that's escalating fast. This would allow local police to "enhance" border security, which is... Ungood. So this is obviously going to die in the Senate.
To be eligible to receive a grant under this section, a law enforcement agency shall
...
a State or territory with a maritime border.
Ah shit, we're going to give a ton of money to Florida's State army. Boo!
Man, Division C of this just sucks giant donkey balls. Also, some of it doesn't even make math sense. Use the budget allocation pre-2021 for 900 miles of solid wall? There's not enough dinero amigo! And yes, even with the oh so clever item (3):
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall waive all legal requirements necessary to ensure the expeditious design, testing, construction, installation, deployment, integration, operation, and maintenance of the physical barriers, tactical infrastructure, and technology under this section
Just ignoring all the construction regulations isn't going to save that much money on nine followed by two zeros of miles of solid wall in a lot of the land that Congress is requiring. It's just a non-doable thing, even if we were building the wall out of papier-mâché. Also the whole "oh don't worry about documenting anything during the construction" that seemed to work "oh so well" with the PPP loans. Let's clearly do that again.
Oh also of note is the lack of any guidance on E-Verify. Clearly we cannot be going after "innocent" employers who "forgot" to check if the person was a legal immigrant or not.
All I have to say is that whole thing is a BIG ASK for just kicking the can to October.
SEC . 101. (a) Such amounts as may be necessary, at a rate for operations as provided in the applicable appropriations Acts for fiscal year 2023
Just FYI for anyone who doesn't know. The US fiscal year is from Oct. 1 to Sep. 30. So FY23 ends on September 30th and that's literally the first thing this bill covers. "We're just going with it until the end of FY23."
All I'm going to say is that I'm putting a shiny quarter on this being told to pound sand by the Senate. Just a hunch.