DeLauro Statement on Republicans Blocking Homeland Security Funding

WASHINGTON – Today, House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) issued a statement after Senate Republicans blocked funding for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA): 

“Republicans have once again blocked funding for the vast majority of the Department of Homeland Security. Unless Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) get another $28 billion with no reforms, TSA agents will not be paid, Coast Guard Servicemembers will be hung out to dry, and the federal disaster relief fund will remain dangerously depleted. That is the Republican position.

“If Republicans were truly concerned about the impacts of this shutdown, they could easily fund FEMA, TSA, CISA, the Secret Service, and the Coast Guard. I have already introduced legislation that would do just that, while allowing negotiations over ICE and CBP to continue on a separate track. Republicans in the House have blocked my legislation, and Republicans in the Senate today blocked similar measures.

“It is nothing but political theater. Republicans must allow my measure to come to the Floor for a vote, and stop using the shutdown as leverage to extract even more money for agencies that violate the law with no accountability.”

Full text of the bill (H.R. 7481) can be found here.

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