I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1222
To reimburse the State of Texas for expenses incurred for activities conducted
relating to securing the southern international border of the United
States, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY11, 2025
Mr. W
ILLIAMSof Texas (for himself, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mr. SELF, Mr. WEBER
of Texas, Mr. B
ABIN, Mr. ELLZEY, Mr. GILLof Texas, and Mr.
L
UTTRELL) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Homeland
Security, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To reimburse the State of Texas for expenses incurred for
activities conducted relating to securing the southern
international border of the United States, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Operation Lone Star 4
Reimbursement Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
Congress finds the following: 2
(1) The Federal Government is primarily re-3
sponsible for securing the borders of the United 4
States at and between ports of entry. 5
(2) Due to the lack of border action by the 6
Federal Government from January 20, 2021, to 7
January 19, 2025, the State of Texas has been 8
forced to continually appropriate funds to secure the 9
southern border of the United States. 10
(3) Texas has taken these actions to help main-11
tain safety and security for all citizens across the 12
United States by protecting against the criminal 13
acts of— 14
(A) human trafficking; 15
(B) sex trafficking; 16
(C) drug proliferation; 17
(D) illicit movement of weapons and con-18
traband; 19
(E) criminal organizations; and 20
(F) unlawful entry. 21
(4) In March 2021, the Governor of Texas 22
launched Operation Lone Star to combat these 23
threats, resulting in— 24
(A) apprehension of over half a million ille-25
gal immigrants; 26
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(B) 140,000 attempted illegal entries de-1
nied; 2
(C) over 50,000 criminal arrests; 3
(D) the seizure of half a billion lethal doses 4
of fentanyl; and 5
(E) construction of over 240 miles of bor-6
der barriers. 7
(5) The amount the State of Texas spent on 8
border security to combat the crisis at Texas’ south-9
ern border was $11.1 billion of Texas taxpayer fund-10
ing. 11
SEC. 3. REIMBURSEMENTS FOR THE STATE OF TEXAS. 12
(a) A
PPLICATION FORREIMBURSEMENT.—The Gov-13
ernor of Texas shall submit to the Secretary of Homeland 14
Security and the Secretary of the Treasury an application 15
for reimbursement, which shall include— 16
(1) a list of expenses incurred by the State of 17
Texas for activities conducted relating to securing 18
the southern international border of the United 19
States during the years 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 20
and 2025; and 21
(2) the total amount of expenses incurred for 22
such activities. 23
(b) A
PPLICATIONREVIEW.—The Secretary of Home-24
land Security must review the State of Texas’ application 25
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within 120 days after receival and determine what ex-1
penses that incurred are eligible for reimbursement and 2
submit a report to Congress on the final decision. 3
(c) R
EIMBURSEMENT.—Not later than 60 days after 4
the Secretary of Homeland Security has submitted the re-5
imbursement decision to Congress, the Secretary of the 6
Treasury shall pay to the State of Texas, out of any 7
amounts in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, an 8
amount equal to the total amount of expenses determined 9
reimbursable. 10
Æ
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