Ranking Member Underwood Statement at the Full Committee Markup of the Fiscal Year 2026 Homeland Security Funding Bill

WASHINGTON — Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (D-IL-14), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the full committee's markup of the fiscal year 2026 Homeland Security bill:

Good morning, and thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. Chairman, while I ultimately cannot support the legislation we are considering today, I have been so proud to work with you on strengthening and improving our many shared bipartisan priorities in this space. I thank you and your staff for your hard work and partnership, and look forward to continuing to work together. 

I also want to thank our staff, who I know have not slept much recently – Shannon, Jamie, and Chris – for their incredible work on these critical issues. 

Now I think we can all agree that whether it is at the border, the airport, our country’s shorelines, or in cyberspace, the Department of Homeland Security cannot fail. 

But I also believe that the Department cannot fail the rights and values that make America the greatest nation in the world. 

Under the Trump Administration, DHS is out of control: illegally spending hundreds of millions of our taxpayer dollars, flagrantly violating constitutional rights, and putting America’s security at risk.

Under this Administration, due process and the limitations that the Constitution puts on our government are being ignored, and this bill must do more to check them. 

Right now, this bill fails to protect American citizens from being deported by the Trump Administration. 

It fails to protect American citizens from being confronted in their homes and offices, or having their property seized, as this Administration’s deportation policies ignore the boundaries of our laws. 

It shamefully allows law enforcement to continue snatching people off the street, at church, at schools, without requiring proper identification or due process. 

And it punishes immigrants who are following our laws, all while rewarding for-profit detention centers with billions of taxpayer dollars and lax oversight. 

As Members of Congress, we have a constitutional responsibility to keep this Administration accountable in both how it spends taxpayer dollars and how it operates. 

We saw this year after our FEMA hearing what this Department does when anyone speaks truth to power. I am deeply concerned that if this bill passes and DHS goes unchecked, the United States of America will become a country that our own citizens will seek refuge from because of the repeated attacks on our basic freedoms and rights. 

Giving unchecked power to this Administration is bad enough, but unfortunately, the bill makes things worse, by leaving Americans more vulnerable to catastrophic threats and burdening state and local governments. The bill adopts DOGE staffing cuts to CISA and FEMA personnel by roughly $130 million and $93 million, respectively.   

Let me say that again – as a ceasefire remains elusive with Iran, a nation known for cyberattacks on adversaries’ infrastructure and communities, you are doubling down on cuts to our core cyber defenses. 

That’s indefensible.

The only people who benefit from this bill’s failure to invest here are bad actors in Iran, China, Russia, and around the world who will now find it easier to attack Americans.

Meanwhile, the White House requested zero dollars to supplement FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund that all Americans rely on to recover from major disasters, and fails to acknowledge an urgent $8 billion dollar deficit in the DRF. 

We are heading into both wildfire and hurricane seasons, and friends, the funding level provided in this bill is insufficient to help us dig out of this hole, and all but guarantees that the Disaster Relief Fund will be at a dangerously low level again by next summer.

All of this means that the burden to respond to the next ransomware attack on your local hospital or deadly hurricane in your district will increasingly fall to state and local leaders who lack the resources to respond. 

State and local communities don’t have the ability to rebuild after disasters and cyber catastrophes on their own. This bill abandons our neighbors after a crisis. 

Finally, I want to note that this bill does not include funding for the Citizenship and Integration Program that has been run for more than a decade by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 

This initiative funds faith-based organizations and community-focused organizations that help legal immigrants prepare to become citizens by preparing them for the citizenship exam and helping them learn English. 

Mr. Chairman, we make America stronger and more secure when we make investments in our communities stronger, and when we uphold our values. But this bill does neither, and I cannot support it. 

I yield back. 

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