Below is a statement from NYS Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis who filed for the NY-11 seat currently held by Rep. Max Rose.
Yesterday, Congressman Max Rose voted with Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar to override President Trump’s emergency declaration to secure our borders at the request of U.S. Customs and Border Protection so they can stop drug and human trafficking and the flood of unvetted individuals from entering our country unlawfully.
Last week he dishonestly claimed that President Trump could take the $400M appropriated by Congressman Donovan in 2016 to build Staten Island’s sea wall and use it to fund border fencing instead. The President’s executive order does no such thing. The funding to secure our border would come from:
$600 million from Treasury in drug forfeiture funds;
$2.5 billion from the Department of Defense (DOD) counter drug activities;
$3.6 billion from the Department of Defense construction fund authorized in the John McCain Defense Authorization bill.
For our new representative in Congress to instill fear in the residents of the East Shore who have been waiting for the sea wall and claim that President Trump would potentially be taking the money for this project is irresponsible and wrong. The federal funds for the sea wall secured by Congressman Donovan, along with the $65M in city funding and the $151M we allocated at the state level, has been and continues to be there to fund our sea wall project.