Speech #1140009748

It makes wide. needed. broad investments in strengthening all sorts of different organs of our government at the Federal. State. and local level that strengthen our homeland security. Instead. the other party has insisted on attaching political provisions to the bill that would overturn the Presidents Executive action on immigration. I know I do not need to remind the Presiding Officer or any of our colleagues that we have already debated and passed comprehensive immigration reform in this Chamber which. if taken up by the House. would have made the Presidents action completely unnecessary. I think we all agree that congressional action is the preferred path toward fixing our broken immigration system. If that is what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are really concerned about. then I am eager to discuss how we can fix our badly broken immigration system in a bipartisan manner by the preferred path of congressional action rather than Executive action. But I think we should separate that debate over immigration and what is the right path toward a resolution of our broken system from a discussion about responsibly and sustainably funding our Department of Homeland Security. If we fail to fund Homeland Security. it would have damaging consequences to our economy. to the security of our communities. and to our reputation around the world. At this time of heightened concern about our cohesion. about our unity. and about our security as a country. failing to fund the Federal Department of Homeland Security I think sends the worst possible message to our allies around the world about our capacity as a mature democracy of reaching responsible resolutions on difficult and divisive issues. If the Department of Homeland Security shuts down this week. tens of thousands of its staff would be furloughed without pay. They include the FEMA disaster and preparedness staff. the very personnel who check the immigration status of new employees through EVerify. critical security intelligence analysts. and the folks who run the domestic nuclear detection offices. just to name a few. The list of these tens of thousands of Homeland Security employees and the vital functions they perform would take longer than the evening could take. My own State of Delaware has the lowest mean elevation in the country.