WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the House Rules Committee in opposition to Republicans’ bill to prolong the Department of Homeland Security shutdown:
Thank you very much, Chairwoman Foxx, and thank you Ranking Member McGovern, thank you Members of the Committee, and my friend Chairman Cole.
I think I am in the movie Groundhog Day, but nevertheless, we proceed. Just for the record, let us be very, very clear, ICE and CBP are 85 percent funded. They are funded. If there is concern about them doing their job, get them the hell out of the airports, where they are doing nothing and getting paid while TSA are not getting paid and trying to do their job. And get them to where they can do their job. They are funded. I think we have to keep repeating that. They are not suffering an iota of economic insecurity.
I have to be honest; I am at a loss. Last night, the Senate unanimously passed a bill to end the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security. A bill that was engineered by Majority Leader Thune. Senate Republicans support the bill. Senate Democrats support the bill. House Democrats support the bill. The White House, though you’re never sure where they’re going to come out, at the outset was supporting the bill. Don’t know where they are now, but that’s always a crapshoot. We never know what the hell is going on there.
How often, how often, do we get unanimous consent in this body, in this environment? My God, the Earth should shake. You know, this is an unbelievable moment. No one. They hotlined it. No one disagreed. Whoa. It’s extraordinary. Unanimous vote, comes to the House, House, Senate, we’re for it. That’s the way the system works.
But House Republicans – and House Republicans alone – have said, no – let us keep this shutdown going. Let us continue to withhold paychecks from TSA workers. It’s OK if they sleep in their cars. It’s OK if they’re getting paid for plasma. It’s OK if they’re frightened to death of evictions, what they’re going to do for their families and their kids. It’s OK. Extend long lines at airports, prolong the chaos and uncertainty that this has shutdown has caused. Leave Americans economically burdened and poorer.
So, what are we considering here today? An entirely different piece of legislation altogether. It is an almost two-month continuing resolution. One that does not have buy-in from anyone other than House Republicans. It has a zero chance of becoming law. Again, zero chance at becoming law. It serves no purpose, other than to prolong this shutdown for almost two months and a shutdown that has already gone on long enough.
The Senate has gone home. They are not passing anything. They did their job, striking an agreement that passed unanimously. This shutdown rests squarely on the shoulders of House Republican leadership. They were offered a bipartisan bill, that the president indicated he would sign, and they still rejected it. This is no way to govern, but quite frankly, I don’t believe that the House Majority does not want to govern.
I have heard so much from so many of my Republican colleagues throughout this shutdown about how they cannot imagine how Democrats can look TSA agents in the eye as we go through security, and how it is a disgrace and all the rest of it. And here we are. With a deal that everyone has agreed to. And they are still saying no. TSA agents will know who is responsible for holding their paychecks up. I return the question to my colleagues: how will you look those agents in the eye as you fly home for Spring Break?
Kicking the can down the road for 60 days is not a viable solution by any stretch of the imagination. My friend Chairman Cole and I have long agreed that continuing resolutions are not the way to go. It is always better to do the hard work of legislating, of negotiating, of forging a compromise.
The bill the Senate passed is the product of that process. It is a bipartisan solution, that was arrived at after many long hours of negotiating between Democrats and Republicans. But as I said, a bill engineered by Senate Republicans and the Majority Leader. It is the only viable option before us.
I want to be clear that Chairman Cole is a man of his word. My frustration today is with Speaker Johnson and with House leadership who, in my opinion, are making a catastrophic mistake.
This is an inexcusable failure of leadership. This is not how you get things done in this body. House Republican leadership are refusing to take yes for an answer, and the American people are going to continue paying the price for that.
The White House apparently believes they have the authority to pay TSA workers. If they do, then every day for the past 40-plus days they have made a conscious decision not to pay them. And the TSA Administrator not two days ago said that the Department made the decision not to pay TSA workers. They are picking and choosing which workers they think deserve to be paid. I think the public should decide which of us ought to be paid for the jobs being done here. Most staff at CBP and ICE and the Coast Guard and Secret Service are already being paid. But TSA workers have been singled out, held hostage, pawns in a political game. And as the Ranking Member said, this is not a game. You are playing with people’s lives. It is shameful. And these folks are somehow undeserving? That is shameful.
I am prepared to answer your questions.
Thank you, and I yield back.