By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD — Down party lines, the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee approved Gov. Chris Sununu’s request to spend $850,000 of state money to send National Guard troops to Texas.
The money would support about 15 state guard members going to Eagle Pass, Texas to help the Texas Milia at the southern border crossing the state took over from federal officers and continues to control.
Other states controlled by Republican governors are also sending National Guard members to Texas, after 18 GOP governors went to Eagle Pass this past week to meet with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and review the situation.
In asking for the money, Sununu emphasized the state’s fentanyl crisis that claims 400 to 500 state residents a year in drug overdoses as the reason to send the guard members to Texas.
“If you ask me. the fentanyl crisis is the number one crisis this state has faced in terms of health in quite a long time,” Sununu told the committee Friday. “It’s a terrific expenditure of $850,000 to be part of a national effort to finally stop or a stronger effort to slow down the fentanyl that is completely unmitigated coming into this country.”
Several members of the committee said border control has always been a federal responsibility, and wondered if the state money would not be better spent on interdiction here in the state.
Rep. Peter Leishman, D-Peterborough, said he was aware of what is going on at the southern border, but much of the fentanyl from Asia is coming into the country through California and Arizona.
“It seems to me it would be more appropriate to spend state money on drug and alcohol prevention in New Hampshire,” Leishman said, “rather than send 15 guardsmen to Texas. No disrespect, but what kind of difference are they going to make along thousands of miles of border.”
Sununu said what is happening on the southern border is a lack of effort on the part of the Biden administration, which is refusing to follow current laws and has rolled back restrictions the former administration had put in place.
States are stepping up to help Texas secure the border and the 15 troops from New Hampshire for 60 to 90 days is just what Abbott is looking for, Sununu said. “The southern border is a huge part of the (drug) problem we have here in New Hampshire.”
Rep. Jess Edwards, R-Auburn, also expressed concerns about using state money for border protection, but said he believes the situation along the southern border if far graver than Sununu expressed with millions of people crossing the border who are unaccountable including terrorist who are setting up terror cells in this country, comparing the situation to the threat of Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
The situation will limit the country’s ability to respond if Taiwan is attacked in the future or its support for Israel, Edwards said.
Sen. James Gray, R-Rochester, said as the southern border is closed down, that will result in more people attempting to come into the country along the northern border and that will put pressure on New Hampshire and other states.
Sununu requested and received $1.4 million in the biennial budget for the Northern Border Alliance of state, local and federal agents to patrol the state’s northern border although to date few people have been stopped or arrested under the program.
Sununu agreed with Gray, saying that his concern with the northern border was not so much the fentanyl but terrorist coming in from Montreal.
Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, D-Manchester, said that effort was being done with general fund money, as the state is doing more than its part to address the situation.
But he said Congress, particularly the Republican controlled House, is not doing its part to fund the federal effort along the southern border.
There are 20,000 federal border patrol and enforcement officers along the southern border now, D’Allesandro said, that need the additional funding in the bipartisan bill the US Senate has already passed, but the US House refuses to take up.
He asked Sununu to use his position as governor and as a Republican to try to move the bill along so there is the funding needed at the southern border.
“Pressure should be applied to Republican members of Congress to fund border security,” D’Allesandro said. “It’s a great way to spend our money.”
But he said he believes there are better uses for the $850,000 in the state where there are a number of challenges.
But Sununu defended the US House saying they passed a better border security bill than the bipartisan Senate bill.
He called the bipartisan Senate bill a “political red herring,” and said President Biden has handcuffed the border control officers telling them to not enforce the law.
Sununu said the Biden administration is willfully failing to stem the tide of immigrants at the border and the resulting drug smuggling, terrorism and street crime.
The bipartisan bill is a solution to a problem created three years ago, Sununu said. “It’s all politics. . . .It’s more a policy crisis than anything.”
Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, said there are several health concerns that the Senate Finance Committee is reviewing that will be very expensive to address, including cyanobacteria and lead paint poisoning.
State funding to address those issues “would have a direct and positive impact on the health and wellbeing of Granite Staters,” Rosenwald said, “rather than sending the National Guard to Texas.”
Sununu said there is no bigger crisis in New Hampshire than the deaths of 400 to 500 people a year to overdoses.
“This is $1 million that should have been spent by someone else,” Sununu said, “but Joe Biden is not willing to do his job and he has told (border patrol officers) not to do (their job).”
When it came time for the committee to vote, the governor asked the committee to put politics aside.
The vote was six Republicans in favor and four Democrats opposed.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.