mr. speaker , reclaiming my time , i would say to my friend that clearly we are debating this right now , during consideration of the rule . 
we have had special orders held on this issue . 
we had a very lengthy hearing in the committee on rules which was available for all of the members ; we had that streamed online . 
so i think that these issues are pretty darned transparent . 
we are trying to deal with border security . 
it is a very important part of the number one priority that we have , and that is our national security . 
i think in light of that , we are going to have an opportunity to consider these measures , and i want to say that i think we have some amendments that are very , very important that do need to be addressed . 
we did make in order the amendment by the gentleman from california ( mr. farr ) xz4001290 , my colleague , which calls for steps that would prevent the completion of the 3.5 mile gap in the 14-mile fence that goes along the border from the pacific ocean to the otai mesa in san diego . 
i have to say that it is amazing , mr. speaker , to observe that it took a shorter period of time to win the second world war than it has to complete this fence . 
it is a fence wherein actually the provision for it was signed into law by president clinton back in 1997 , and that was done with strong bipartisan support . 
i worked with my colleagues , the gentleman from california ( mr. hunter ) xz4001910 , and our colleague mr. ose in the last congress , who was very involved in this ; and i just 10 weeks ago flew with t.j. bonner , the president of the national border patrol council , over this gap in the fence . 
it is very clear that people have taken advantage of it . 
now , the argument that is going to be used on the fence issue , and we will be bringing that up in just a little while , has to do with the environment . 
there are people who say that we need to keep all of these environmental constraints in place which have prevented completion of the fence . 
mr. speaker , what has happened is , we have seen the california coastal commission file a case to prevent completion of it because of something known as the bell 's verio bird . 
this bird has chosen to nest on part of the fence , and for that reason , they can not complete the fence , and it has allowed people to come in . 
now , what has happened is , people have illegally fled across the border . 
we have seen that border in what is known as the tijuana estuary devastated environmentally . 
there is all kinds of trash in there , and the environmental vote , mr. speaker , is to vote against the farr amendment in favor of completion of the fence . 
if we were to complete the fence , we would be able to improve the environmental standard at the border . 
now , this issue is one of the important parts of it , but there is one other issue that i want to mention before i yield back the balance of my time . 
i introduced legislation , h.r. 100 , to deal with something known as the saint cyr decision , that is included in the manager 's amendment ; and what that does , basically , the provision that we have in the manager 's amendment will finally get to the point where the appellate courts are the courts of jurisdiction , and we will not see consistent appeals . 
not many people are aware of the fact that , actually , people who are here illegally have an additional appellate step over american citizens . 
in the manager 's amendment , we will be able to rectify that very , very important issue that does need to be addressed . 
this is a fair and balanced rule . 
it will allow us to deal with border security , a very important part of our national security ; and i hope this great day will see us , at the end , pass this very important legislation . 
