Washington, D.C. — Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), Republican Leader of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, released the following statement after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a supplemental appropriations bill to provide additional support to federal agencies responding to the humanitarian and security crisis on the southern border. 

“This spring’s unprecedented border crisis has overwhelmed all federal resources allocated for migrant care. For months, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has been sounding the alarm that the agency was running out of money to care for the enormous number of migrant children awaiting placement in ORR shelters. Far from ‘detention centers,’ ORR shelters are specially-designed facilities in which unaccompanied migrant children receive medical care, mental health care, education, and additional services such as screening for human trafficking vulnerability

“On May 1, President Trump asked Congress to provide additional funding to expand ORR’s capacity, which would reduce the number of unaccompanied migrant children who are waiting for extended periods in temporary influx centers for a bed at an ORR shelter to become available. Nearly two months after the President asked Congress for the necessary funding, the House passed a bipartisan bill that will provide the desperately-needed humanitarian aid. After months of denial and several false starts, I am grateful that Democrats in Congress have accepted the reality of the border crisis and, at last, prioritized the safety of migrant children over petty politics. While this funding is an important step forward, it is not a permanent fix. Congress must work to pass bipartisan solutions that provide effective border security and fix our nation’s broken immigration laws.”

Background:

Since 2014, Dr. Burgess has made 9 trips to the border and numerous oversight visits to ORR shelters. Most recently, on May 29, 2019, he traveled to the Lower Rio Grande Valley sector to visit the ORR shelter in Brownsville, TX and a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing facility in McAllen, TX. On February 19, 2019, he visited two ORR shelters in south Florida, including the Homestead ORR facility.

Last summer, Dr. Burgess visited the countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to learn about the humanitarian and economic challenges that contribute to irregular migration. You can read more about his trip to the Northern Triangle here

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