Repub­li­can Tony Gon­za­les balks at bipar­ti­san fund­ing bill: ‘Count me out’

Rep. Tony Gon­za­les (R‑TX) reject­ed a bipar­ti­san spend­ing deal to avoid a gov­ern­ment shut­down, tak­ing par­tic­u­lar issue with the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty fund­ing leg­is­la­tion.
“I will be vot­ing no tomor­row,” Gon­za­les wrote Thurs­day morn­ing in a text mes­sage to the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er.
The law­mak­er said the so-called “minibus” of six appro­pri­a­tions bills did not include any pol­i­cy changes that would address the bor­der cri­sis, which has result­ed in more than 8 mil­lion non‑U.S. cit­i­zens attempt­ing to enter the coun­try ille­gal­ly since Pres­i­dent Joe Biden took office in Jan­u­ary 2021.
“Throw­ing more $ at [the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty] is like throw­ing gaso­line on a West Texas fire,” Gon­za­les said.
Gon­za­les, a sec­ond-term law­mak­er whose Texas dis­trict runs along 800 miles of the south­ern bor­der, said his demands were not met by bud­get nego­tia­tors.
“Biden’s failed bor­der agen­da has caused too much death and destruc­tion across my dis­trict,” Gon­za­les said in a state­men …