[Ben Ficklin]

Your link is to the 06 appropriation for DHS. Its possible that there was money in there for this but normally you would say that the treasury can disburse funds quickly. Of course the 2000 new beds appropriated in that funding bill will take longer to implement as will the hiring and training the new border agents.

As for why Congress has always been dragging feet in re-imbursing the border states for the cost that they incur, this mainly boils down to congressmen from other states not wanting to spend the money. So as the illegals show up around the country, they will want their share also. If Texas gets re-imbursed, GA and NJ will want to be re-imbursed also.

[inquest]

Its possible that there was money in there for this but normally you would say that the treasury can disburse funds quickly.

Do would these funds get disbursed directly from the treasury to the states, or would they go through DHS? Is it possible that DeLay was trying to find out what the "delay" was in getting these funds to their destination?