DeLauro on House Floor: “TSA administrator confirmed yesterday that DHS made the decision not to pay TSA workers.”
WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks during debate on the House Floor:
Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to this twice-doomed legislation. What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and over again, expecting a different result. This is not a serious effort. It is just more political theater.
Here is the truth: the president has given up on funding DHS. He said earlier this week that any deal Congress makes, and I quote, “I’m pretty much not happy with it.” And then he said to Republicans, “Don’t make a deal with the Democrats,” does that sound like someone who wants to end this crisis, and to pay TSA workers?
Madam Speaker, the Congress is on its own. The only way we are getting out of this logjam is if we work together to exercise our power of the purse.
The talks in the Senate have all but fallen apart. The president is refusing to get behind anything. Tomorrow will mark the second full paycheck that TSA workers, and others across DHS, will miss.
I might just make a note here because I think it is important to say something about this. In fact, at this moment, 85 percent of ICE and CBP are being paid. Secret Service: 75 percent. Coast Guard: 85 percent. TSA workers: zero. But the TSA administrator confirmed yesterday that the Department made the decision not to pay TSA workers.
The Department made that decision. I am sure in concert with the President of the United States, that these are folks who are expendable. We don’t have to pay them, let’s pay the others and leave them on their own. Again, not someone, or some department, that cares about TSA workers.
I have put forward a proposal that I honestly believe is a reasonable middle ground between the two sides of this discussion. Democrats do not want to provide more funding for ICE or CBP without legally binding policy changes that protect our communities. Republicans are opposed to many of these changes, and want to fund ICE and CBP without any new protections.
Neither side disagrees over funding for TSA, or FEMA, or the Coast Guard, or other parts of DHS. What we are caught up on is whether or not we can deal with ICE and CBP separately, or if we have to fund everything all at once.
I do not believe it must be all-or-nothing. My proposal, which I introduced over a month ago, funds the parts of DHS that we all agree on – it funds TSA, so that these workers can get paid – they can pay their bills, they can stop sleeping in their cars, they can avoid evictions, and we can put an end to the long lines at airport security.
It funds FEMA, so we can replenish the disaster relief fund, and ensure our communities are prepared for the next natural disaster. It fully funds cybersecurity, so we are equipped to prevent or respond to any threat that comes our way.
It separates out funding for ICE and CBP for the time being, just for the time being, so we can negotiate on that issue without holding the rest of the Department hostage.
I have been listening to the debates over this impasse. I believe some of my Republican colleagues are under the impression that my proposal is designed to permanently shutter ICE and CBP. That is not true. That is not the case.
We will have to pass a bill to fund those agencies. And we will do so when we have come together on an agreement that establishes reasonable protections against abuse, reasonable protections I might add, which the vast majority of Americans support.
We cannot have masked, armed federal agents roaming our communities, breaking down doors with no warrants, arresting people with no explanation, and yes even murdering Americans in the streets.
In the meantime, there is no reason to keep the rest of the Department shut down. At the appropriate time I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill. My amendment would have replaced the text of the doomed Republican proposal, with the text of my bill to fund the parts of DHS over which there is no disagreement.
I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record the text of this amendment. I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for the motion to recommit.
Thank you, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Read Ranking Member DeLauro’s fact sheet detailing how President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have been dismantling the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and making Americans less safe since day one.
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