Speech #1140008639

Yet this Congress is no closer than it was last December to carrying out its basic responsibility to appropriately fund the Department of Homeland Security. whose primary mission is to protect us from terrorist attacks. Secretary Johnson has warned us over and over again that the Republican leaderships refusal to allow a vote on the clean. bipartisan funding bill is threatening the national security of our country. He tells us that. without a fullyear budget. he is unable to move forward on key homeland security priorities. including new investments in border security technology. more aggressive investigations by ICE. related to drug smuggling. human smuggling. and trafficking. preparedness for responding to surges in illegal migration. security upgrades at the White House complex. and grants for State and local terrorism prevention and response capabilities. and the list goes on. I am truly perplexed as to what it will take to convince the Republican leadership to do the right thing. Surely. before taking appropriate action. we dont need to experience attacks like those in Paris. If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle believe the President has overreached. the answer is not to jeopardize our national security by delaying the 2015 funding for Homeland Security. If Republicans wish to circumscribe the Presidents discretion on immigration policy. the Constitution provides a clear path of action that runs through the authorizing committees. not through an appropriations bill. Last week. the Senate definitively demonstrated three times that there are insufficient votes to bring up the DHS funding bill with the Housepassed poison pill riders. Even if the Senate were to take up the bill. it would be vulnerable to a budget point of order because the poison pill riders have been scored by the Congressional Budget Office as having a net cost of $7.5 billion. Republicans control majorities in both the House and the Senate. and they control the agenda. By allowing a vote on the clean. fullyear. bipartisan DHS funding bill. the leadership today has the opportunity to make clear that the Nations security takes priority over unrelated policy debates over immigration enforcement strategy. This bill addresses the most pressing needs of the Department of Homeland Securitys to protect our country from harm. It would pass both Houses and would be signed by the President today. and we should send it to him.