Ranking Member DeLauro Remarks: Fiscal Year 2027 Homeland Security Subcommittee Markup

-- Remarks as Delivered --

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I too am so appreciative of your work and the work of Ranking Member Cueller in getting this bill to where it is. There obviously are serious differences with the bill which we will address, and look forward to the opportunity to work together to make changes in the bill. 

And I want to say a thank you to Chairman Cole. I concur that the bills don’t start out the way we like them and we try to get to the end game. I would wish that sometimes we would not repeat the same things we did last year, moving forward, and we could do it in a more deliberative and faster way since we know some of these things fall by the wayside. It may be good that they fall by the wayside now so that we can move the work of the committee.

I want to say a thank you to the subcommittee staff. I say that particularly of Homeland Security. It has been difficult. We were able to pass 11 of the 12 bills, Homeland still has its difficulties. To staff on both sides of the aisle, we commend you for your dedication and commitment to Homeland Security. Shannon McCully, Jamie Wise, and Jim Ellsworth for the minority, and Paul Anstine, Anna Lanier Fischer, Fern Gibbons, Ashley Truluck, Alessandra Ramirez, and Nkosi Thomas on the majority. Thank you for your great work.

I am opposed to the bill under consideration today. From the beginning, we have maintained that we will not provide another penny in funding for ICE or the Border Patrol without substantial reforms to the way those agencies operate – reforms that protect our constituents and our communities from the kind of reckless and senseless abuses we have seen.

Democrats believe in border control and in secure borders. We are there. But we are also committed to making sure the results of those actions, of border control, do not result in American citizens dying in our streets.

This bill provides more than $10 billion for ICE and nearly $7 billion for the Border Patrol. While I welcome the incremental measures the majority has included in this bill, which make progress towards the reforms necessary to protect our communities, they still fall far short of what is required to earn our support.

These agencies have broken the law. In January alone, ICE violated nearly 100 court orders, which the chief federal judge in Minnesota – a Republican-appointee – estimated was more than some federal agencies have violated during their entire existence.

Just this week, Secretary Mullin testified that he is under no obligation to follow court orders he simply doesn’t agree with. That the head of the largest federal law enforcement agency in the country would show such flagrant disregard for the American legal system should offend anyone who respects the rule of law.

The majority of Americans support strong protections from ICE abuses. And we will not agree to another penny until those conditions are met – until we can be sure that the people we represent are safe.

Agents must get a warrant from a judge before kicking in someone’s door; they must remove their masks and display identification; we must prohibit operations at schools, hospitals, and houses of worship; we must end racial profiling; and allow for independent investigations into misconduct. That is how we keep our communities safe, and how we protect the rights of all Americans. That is how we regain the trust of the American people that this administration has lost.

During the recent funding lapse, many of my Republican colleagues invoked the Transportation Security Administration and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency – claiming that a failure to fully fund these agencies was so egregious that we had to give ICE and Border Patrol billions of dollars with no strings attached to avoid it. 

Now, Republicans have the chance to write their own bill from scratch, and what do they do? They cut the budgets for CISA and TSA. They cut funding from TSA by nearly $350 million, and from CISA by more than $250 million. These agencies, and the people who keep us safe every day, used to be so important to our colleagues. What happened?

And as we speak, Senate Republican leadership circumvented this committee and gave the Trump administration another $69.5 billion with no strings attached. There is no accountability, and there is no oversight. If the measure passes the House next week, without any of the precautions, we will have provided DHS with more than $260 billion that this committee did not approve.

I will always stand up for the Appropriations process. I believe firmly, and I know Chairman Cole shares my belief, that partisan reconciliation bills are no substitute for the work we do here. And again if it passes in the House next week it will circumvent what this committee is all about. And in my view, violates that power of the purse that is granted to the Appropriations Committee in the United States Constitution.

But you have to see the absurdity in refusing to include substantive guardrails against ICE and Border Patrol, while also giving them nearly $17 billion, on top of what they are already set to receive in reconciliation, while cutting funding for cybersecurity, the TSA, and internal watchdogs who prevent abuse within the Department.

The reforms we are seeking for these agencies are not unreasonable, nor are they impractical. They are popular, responsible, and necessary to ensure the safety of our constituents.

I encourage my colleagues to work with us to adopt all of these guardrails and protect our communities. And to protect the power of the purse that is enshrined in the United States Constitution for this committee. Until then, I urge a strong “No” vote on this legislation.

Thank you, and I yield back.