As a member of the House Appropriations Committee who sits on the subcommittees that oversee the Homeland Security and Defense department budgets, I work every day to ensure that precious resources are going where America needs them most. Instead of this political stunt, $200 million could pay for:

• The salaries of 2,500 new Customs and Border Patrol Officers to screen containers for drugs and weapons of mass destruction at seaports.

• Seventy drive-through Non-Intrusive Inspection Systems to screen containers at official ports of entry for smuggled migrants and contraband.

• Four hundred state-of-the-art computed-tomography baggage screeners for the Transportation Security Administration to ensure no one takes explosives or other weapons onto commercial airplanes.