Ranking Member Underwood Remarks at Department of Homeland Security Oversight Hearing

WASHINGTON — Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (D-IL-14), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the subcommittee's oversight hearing on the Department of Homeland Security:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing to conduct oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, and welcome, Secretary Noem to your first hearing here.

On this subcommittee, our job is to keep our country safe and to safeguard our values as Americans.

Last year, working together, we secured consistent increases for border operations funding, and helped bring encounters at the southern border down, and seizures of narcotics, including fentanyl, up, through critical investments at our ports of entry, CBP Officers, and increases to Homeland Security Investigations. 

Normally I would focus my questions for the Secretary on the details of the President’s Budget, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we are holding today’s hearing without an actual budget for fiscal year 2026 to review, and the “skinny budget” released last Friday is filled more with politics than facts.

So let me begin with some facts that I think are important for the American people to hear about what you’re doing with their money.

Because three months into this Administration, America is more vulnerable than it has ever been. Our homeland is not secure.

In the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, you have slashed our nation’s cyber defenses, letting Russia, China, and Iran steal our top secrets and Americans’ personal data; you have wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on illegal detention and deportation, including some people who were trying to come into this country “the legal way” within our broken immigration system – despite, by the Department’s own admission, southern border encounters already at record lows; sent emails to U.S. citizens that read “Please leave the United States immediately”; removed U.S. citizen children, including those with terminal illness; raised the price tag of future disasters by cutting billions from projects across the country to make our infrastructure more resilient – including a bipartisan program that was enacted into law by President Trump himself; and taken millions of dollars away from the DHS workforce and operations for what appears to be taxpayer-funded political advertisements. 

During our Member Day hearing last month, I also raised the unacceptable and unconstitutional decisions this Administration has been making with the funds provided to the Department by this Committee, including the sudden and unexplained termination of DHS grants to states, universities, and non-profit organizations, the cancellation of the Disaster Relief Fund’s BRIC program, violations of the 5th Amendment right to due process enshrined in the Constitution, and reductions in force of parts of the Department’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, as well as the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman.

I also have serious concerns with the Administration’s decision to revoke the bargaining rights for DHS personnel – with an exception made for unions that have vocally supported the President – in the name of efficiency and combatting waste, fraud, and abuse but without any evidence to back these claims.

Mr. Chairman, these are programs that Congress debated and ultimately funded. Our role as appropriators is to write the law and responsibly fund the government – and the Executive’s role is to execute that funding pursuant to the law.

It’s no secret the administration has ramped up immigration detention beyond what Congress funded. Increases to ICE at the expense of other national security programs and initiatives that Members on both sides of the aisle voted for undermines our core work and congressional intent. 

DHS is cashing checks it simply doesn’t have in hopes that reconciliation passes and will cover their shortfall. That is an incredibly risky strategy and only sets up essential national security agencies for failure or violations of the Antideficiency Act. How does that secure the Homeland?

There have been bipartisan discussions surrounding the organizational structure of the Department of Homeland Security – whether it’s making FEMA an independent agency, or transferring components, like the U.S. Coast Guard or the U.S. Secret Service, to other Departments. 

We will never shy away from discussions about how we can improve the Department, but absent an enacted law from Congress making changes to the Department’s organizational structure, this subcommittee will continue to conduct oversight over all existing DHS components and provide for their continued funding in the Homeland Security bill.

I know there are many areas in this bill that share bipartisan support, and I am so proud of the relationship that Chairman Amodei and I have built. I know that even in this highly partisan environment, he and I are committed to welcoming ideas for how to improve and better manage the Department.

But the Trump Administration’s actions have pushed us to an unprecedented and sobering moment. America is a democracy, not a dictatorship. 

In a democracy, we are organized around the rule of law, and those laws are based on a core set of constitutional rights. 

You may be familiar with the Bill of Rights.

It includes the 4th Amendment, which forbids unreasonable searches and seizures. 

The 5th Amendment, which guarantees the right to due process.

The 6th Amendment, which protects the right to a fair trial and legal counsel.

As we endeavor to secure the homeland, we must continue to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. That is not a secondary mission. 

Let me conclude and take a moment to recognize the dedication and commitment of the women and men of the Department of Homeland Security who carry out the Department’s vital missions that help protect the American people from a wide range of threats.

Again, I want to thank the Chairman for holding this hearing. Mr. Chairman, I look forward to working with you on a bill that reflects those shared priorities, keeps our country safe, and upholds our shared values as Americans.

I yield back.

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