Squad member Rep. Rashida Tlaib cast her vote against a bill requiring an annual report to Congress for cartel smuggling tunnels under the border. Interestingly enough, she was the ONLY person to vote “no” on the bill.
The bill, known as H.R. 495, passed the House on Monday with a whopping 402-1 vote.
“I thought for sure everyone was gonna vote yes on my bill this evening,” bill sponsor Rep. Eli Crane wrote on X following the vote. “402-1 is still pretty solid though.”
I thought for sure everyone was gonna vote yes on my bill this evening.
402-1 is still pretty solid though. https://t.co/UWEbzHXUgO
— Rep. Eli Crane (@RepEliCrane) March 11, 2025
As reported by Breitbart:
On Monday, the House of Representatives voted to pass the Subterranean Border Defense Act (H.R. 495). The bill simply requires an annual report to Congress from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on the activities of cartels creating tunnels for drug and human smuggling and actions taken by the U.S. to stop them.
“Since 1990, officials have discovered more than 140 tunnels that have breached the border, with an 80% increase in tunnel activity since 2008,” Crane said on the House floor. “As transnational criminal organizations continue to grow in both size and sophistication, illicit cross-border tunnels along the southwest border of the United States represent a significant and growing threat to national security.”
Democrat co-sponsor Lou Correra (C-CA) also spoke on the bill, saying, “I believe this bill is an important step in the right direction.”
No one spoke against the bill. In a rare bipartisan moment, 194 Democrats joined 208 Republicans in voting for the bill. The undervote came as ten Republicans and 19 Democrats abstained from voting. Tlaib cast the only “Nay.”
In addition to Crane, the bill was co-sponsored by the following:
- Rep. Correa, J. Luis [D-CA-46]
- Rep. Biggs, Andy [R-AZ-5]
- Rep. Gosar, Paul A. [R-AZ-9]
- Rep. Higgins, Clay [R-LA-3]
- Rep. Luttrell, Morgan [R-TX-8]
- Rep. Ogles, Andrew [R-TN-5]
- Rep. Guest, Michael [R-MS-3]
- Rep. Gillen, Laura [D-NY-4]
Now the bill will go to Senate for a vote.