By GARY MARTIN
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
July 17, 2009, 9:37PM
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from Texas and other border states are trying to scuttle a Senate plan to build 700 miles of double-layerfencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The lawmakers, led by Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that the funds would be better used to support “our understaffed, crowded and overburdened ports of entry.” In an interview, Cuellar called the border fence “a waste of taxpayer's money.”
The Senate wants to continue the Bush administration's push to extend the border fence, but the House passed its version of the Department of Homeland Security spending bill without any money for the fence. The matter now goes to a joint House-Senate panel to iron out the differences.
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