PAC’s Cruz ad misstates O’Rourke voting record
A super PAC backing the re-election of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas portrays Democratic nominee Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who represents El
Paso in the U.S.
House, as careless about border security.
A TV ad from the Texans Are PAC associates O’Rourke, who opposes the border-long wall sought by Republicans led by President Donald Trump, with taxpayer-funded benefits for immigrants and “sanctuary cities,” a term that usually refers to communities that deter local law officers from asking individuals to share their immigration status.
The ad’s narrator follows up the mention of O’Rourke’s support for sanctuary cities by saying about O’Rourke, “... while voting against border armor for Texas sheriffs patrolling the border.” The ad also shows these words on screen: “No body armor for Texas sheriffs.”
Fine print below the ad’s mention of sheriffs and body armor helped us start our factual review. It said the claim about denying
body armor to border sheriffs ties to an O’Rourke vote in June 2014 on the “Grayson Amendment.”
Separately, we noticed, Cruz’s campaign posted a press release in May 2018 mentioning the June 19, 2014, vote on the amendment. In that House-posted vote, O’Rourke was among 62 members (counting 43 Democrats) to vote for the amendment from then-Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., which was rejected by 355 members (including 145 Democrats).
Cruz’s release said, “O’Rourke voted in favor of a bill that would prevent funding for the Defense Department’s Excess Personal Property Program.” The release said the program had provided law enforcement in the El Paso area with more than $9 million in equipment, including 156 units of body armor for the sheriff ’s office; 90 night-vision units for the local Border Patrol; helicopters for
the city police and Border Patrol; and other items such as trauma gear, fencing and generators.
According to the Defense Logistics Agency, which oversees the program, more than 8,000 federal and state law enforcement agencies participate. “Law enforcement agencies use the equipment in a variety of ways,” the agency says. “For instance, four-wheel drive vehicles are used to interrupt drug harvesting, haul away marijuana, patrol streets and conduct surveillance. The 1033 Program also helps with the agencies’ general equipment needs, such as file cabinets, copiers and fax machines that they need but perhaps are unable to afford.”
Our web search for more information about the roll call vote cited in the Texans Are ad led us to the text of Grayson’s failed amendment to the Defense Department’s appropriations act. That text forbade expenditures toward aircraft, tanks and weaponry provided from the personal property program to local law enforcement — but it made no mention of body armor.
Let’s get specific: Grayson’s amendment said that no funds made available by the act “may be used to transfer aircraft (including unmanned aerial vehicles), armored vehicles, grenade launchers, silencers, toxi- cological agents (including chemical agents, biologi- cal agents, and associated equipment), launch vehicles, guided missiles, bal- listic missiles, rockets, tor- pedoes, bombs, mines, or nuclear weapons (as identi- fied for demilitarization purposes outlined in Department of Defense Manual 4160.28) through the personal prop- erty program.”
Jason Johnson, who runs the Texans Are PAC, told us by email that the proposed restriction indeed extended to denying body armor to border sheriffs. He didn’t say how.
Johnson also told us that in June 2014, O’Rourke voted against an amendment to the 2016 Defense Authorization Act successfully offered by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, “that included border security activities on the list of preferred applications the Defense Department should consider when transferring excess property to other federal agencies.”
We turned to the Congres- sional Record transcript of that debate to learn that for the purposes of border secu- rity, McCaul’s amendment placed the Homeland Security Department on equal footing with other law-en- forcement agencies in access to Defense Department excess equipment. The transcript shows that neither the amend- ment nor House floor debate touched on body armor for border sheriffs.
O’Rourke spoke in opposi- tion to McCaul’s amendment, it further shows, by saying the Homeland Security Department already had access to such equipment, which, he said, wasn’t needed on the border anyway. O’Rourke said we “do not need to militarize the border” and he the amendment creates “further anxiety and fear about the border at a time that is not warranted,” according to the transcript.
The transcript shows O’Rourke ultimately requested a record (rather than voice) vote on the amendment. In that roll call vote, O’Rourke was among 162 Democrats and four Republicans voting “no” while McCaul was among 235 Republicans plus 18 Democrats voting “aye.”
Our ruling:
Texans Are said O’Rourke voted against providing body armor to Texas sheriffs patrolling the border.
In 2014, O’Rourke voted in favor of barring the Defense Department from providing excess aircraft, tanks and military weaponry to local law agencies in general. However, the proposed restriction did not extend to body armor and made no mention of border sheriffs.
Contrary to the ad’s claim, there was no up-or-down vote on providing body armor to Texas sheriffs patrolling the border.
We rate this claim False.