MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Congressman Steny Hoyer on Funding the Department of Homeland Security

Interview

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SCHULTZ: For more, let`s bring in Congressman Steny Hoyer live from the
Hill tonight. Congressman, good to have you with us tonight, you`re the
whip.

REP. STENY HOYER, (D) MARYLAND: Good to be with you Ed.

SCHULTZ: You bet, what`s the speaker going to do? What`s happening?

HOYER: Well, I don`t know but I know what we -- what you just reported in
this thing is simply untrue, and he ought to know what`s untrue.

He promised the American people that he would send individual bills forward
to be voted on. What he did knowingly was to put a piece in this
legislation, as Harry Reid had said, which was unacceptable to the
Democrats in the Senate unacceptable to sufficient numbers they have to
move ahead in the Senate. He knew it was going to die.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOYER: He`s playing the game. I couldn`t say it better than Peter King.
Knowingly (ph) is this bad politics, its bad morals.

We need to keep the Department of Homeland and Security particularly as
Peter King, the former Republican Chairman of the Homeland Security
Committee said we need to keep on high alert at this time of great dangers
to the American people...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOYER: ... and to our country and to be playing games. With the
Department of Homeland Security funding is not showing frankly a love of
America.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, is he worried about speakership more than the
funding of the Department of Homeland Security? It just seems to me that
Boehner has no clue how he is going to topdown, surround the Tea Party.

HOYER: Well, Ed, you`re going to have to ask John Boehner what he`s
worried about. But it was clear that Mitch McConnell came to the
conclusion and 98 Senators came to the conclusion. It`s time to move on.
It`s time to pass the Department of Homeland Security bill which by the way
is a Republican bill. This is not a...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOYER: ... Democratic bill. It came out on Republican Appropriations
Committee. It`s a Republican bill.

We`re going to support it as it exactly what we would want, no, but that`s
not the issue. The issue is we need to keep America safe and secure. We
need to keep border agents on the job. Yes. They`ll be on the job but we
won`t pay them if we don`t pass this bill. We`re going to lay off 30,000
people. What do they do? They answer the phone to make sure the agents
know on what information is coming in.

SCHULTZ: This is (ph) only a practical question, what happens in airports
if its TSA agents? Is that mean...

HOYER: TSA agents will stay on the job but they won`t be paid. That`s not
policy (inaudible)...

SCHULTZ: You got to run into a lot of good attitudes at the airport now,
there`s no doubt about that.

HOYER: Morale is already low at an agency where we ought to have the
highest morale, the highest readiness, the highest commitment.

The men and women in the Department of Homeland Security, as Secretary
Ridge said and in a fact, put on a uniform, it may not be a military
uniform although 14,000 coast guardsmen have do...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOYER: ... to protect our country and playing games with the funding and
the stability...

SCHULTZ: That`s to do with...

HOYER: ... of that agency is critical to our security and safety.

SCHULTZ: Quick call, Congressman, is it going to be a shutdown at DHS?

HOYER: I certainly hope not.

SCHULTZ: OK.

HOYER: The Senate I think it`s going to send us a clean bill. As Peter
King has said, we`re going to take that bill up, pass it...

SCHULTZ: All right.

HOYER: ... and fund the Department of Homeland Security.

SCHULTZ: Steny Hoyer, always a pleasure, great to have you with us
tonight. Thanks so much.

HOYER: Thank you, Ed.

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