Congress moved one step closer to naming the Border Patrol station in Bisbee, Az., after slain agent Brian Terry, who was killed in December 2010.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Thursday approved a bill to name the facility after Terry. The bill was authored by Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA)and has 68 Democratic and Republican cosponsors. The bill must now go to the full House for a vote.
“Brian Terry gave his life in service of his country. With today’s vote, the naming of the Bisbee station in his honor is one step closer to reality,” Issa said in a statement. “Naming this facility after Agent Terry is just one small tribute to an officer who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and to his fellow agents who face that same risk every day.”
Terry’s name has become central in the controversy over ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious, which encouraged Arizona gun dealers to sell to middlemen, all with the hopes of tracing the weapons to the Mexican drug cartels.
Problem was that ATF lost track of quite a few guns, some of which surfaced at crime scenes on both sides of the border.
Two of those guns were found at the scene where Terry died last Dec. after being shot on patrol 14 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border near Rio Rico, Ariz.
Authorities have been unable to determine whether the guns were actually used in the shooting of Terry, according to some media reports. Nonetheless, those two guns have been repeatedly mentioned by Issa, who is investigating the shortcomings of the program.
OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST
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- Issa Subopoenas White House Press Aide (Roll Call)
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- House Dems Ask Holder to Investigate Possible Bank Collusion (Main Justice)
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