The White House referred to the conservative GOP group as the “extreme MAGA Republican House Freedom Caucus” in a statement and said the proposal would be “a disaster for families in at least five key ways.”
The key ways, according to the White House, include endangering public safety; raising costs for families; shipping manufacturing jobs overseas and undermining American workers; weakening national security; and hurting seniors.
The statement argued that the proposal would make the border less secure because it would eliminate funding for more than 2,000 border agents and allow for “an additional 150,000 pounds of cocaine, nearly 900 pounds of fentanyl, nearly 2,000 pounds of heroin, and more than 17,000 pounds of methamphetamine into our country.”
Biden’s budget included funds to hire an additional 350 Border Patrol Agents, $535 million for border technology at and between ports of entry, and $40 million to combat fentanyl trafficking.
And, the White House argued the Freedom Caucus proposal would defund the police and make communities less safe because it would eliminate 400 local law enforcement positions and could mean a hiring freeze at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.