HR 1505 is a textbook example of a bill introduced to commit political mischief. It would turn the first 100 miles of our nation — along Mexico, along Canada, and along the seas — into a zone where the constable is king, exempting agencies in the Department of Homeland Security from dozens of environmental laws. DHS neither needs nor wants such sweeping authority, and HR 1505’s author, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) and sponsors, among them our own Denny Rehberg, don’t really expect it to pass. They simply want an excuse to accuse environmentalists, Democrats, and the Obama administration of being soft on national security.
Writing on Montana Cowgirl on 2 November 2011, I said:
It will never pass, not even if Rehberg amends it to arm county sheriffs with spears. In fact, if Obama endorsed it, every member of the GOP in the house would vote against it.
Today we learn that Rehberg intends to offer an amendment “…whose details are still being worked out,” reports Mike Dennison of the Helena IR, “[that] would give sheriffs in border counties some authority over how Border Patrol agents use the land in question.” Even if the amendment omits spears, State Senator Greg Hinkle (R-Thompson Falls) should still be happy, for Rehberg is bringing Hinkle’s “sheriff’s first” SB-114 back to life at the federal level — where it make HR 1505 just as unconstitutional as SB-114, which was vetoed by Governor Schweitzer.
Rehberg is drinking the county supremacy kool-aid. Sometimes called the Catron County Movement, it holds that the fundamental unit of government is the county, that within each county the sheriff is supreme, and that state governments and the federal government are subordinate to county governments. It’s a prescription for balkanizing the U.S. at a national level — and anyone serving in Congress who takes it seriously is seriously deranged and not fit to hold political office.