MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Congressman Chris Van Hollen on Funding the Department of Homeland Security

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

For more, let`s go live now to Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.

Congressman earlier today, Steny Hoyer asked all Democrats to vote no on
this. Obviously, that`s pretty much how it came down. The clean bill
never came to the floor for full funding on this over the long, Hollen.
Now, the short-term bill has failed. Where do you go from here? The House
is in recess right now. Where do you go from here, what`s plan B?

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D) MARYLAND: Well, Ed, as of right now the speaker
has totally run out of excuses for not bringing that bipartisan Senate bill
that provides full funding for the Department of Homeland Security, not for
one week, not for two weeks, not for three weeks but to whole fiscal year.

That bipartisan Senate bill is right here in the House of Representatives.
All the speaker has to do is bring it up -- for a vote and it would past
tonight. And it could go the President`s desk for the President`s
signature. It`s that simple.

SCHULTZ: Why he didn`t do it? Why didn`t he bring up that clean bill?

HOLLEN: Well, he didn`t do it because he wants to -- can keep this
uncertainly going with respect to the Department of Homeland Security.
He`s got a lot of members in the Republican Caucus who still want to play
games in politics with the Department of Homeland Security funding. And he
once again was catering to his most extreme wing.

Now is the moment. Now that that didn`t work and as you pointed out the
funding expires at midnight. All the Speaker have to do, very simple,
bring up that Senate bill for a vote. We could have the Department of
Homeland Security fully funded for the rest of the fiscal year, no
nonsense, no games, get it done, protect the homeland and protect our
security.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, is John Boehner joining the Tea Party?

HOLLEN: Well, what we have seen once again is he`s been led around by the
nose by the most extreme elements of his party. And he went down that --
get in path again. And, you know, at some point the Speaker`s got to
learn, he`s got to lead the whole House not be led...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOLLEN: ... by small extreme Tea Party faction of the House.

SCHULTZ: So this emboldens the Tea Party if we understand where they came
from and how arrogant they are when it comes to government and this really
strips the Senate of power in a sense. He has still got those damn Tea
Partiers over there in the House he got to deal with. They`re running the
country right now. That`s what it looks like.

HOLLEN: Well, they are. Again, there`s a simple way out of that dilemma
right now which is if the Speaker decides to put the security of the
country and the Homeland above the extreme ideology of the Tea Party
members of the House, then we can get it done, right.

He just has to make that decision. This is all up to the Speaker.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOLLEN: He puts it up for a vote and we will pass it tonight, full funding
to the rest of the fiscal year, no more nonsense.

SCHULTZ: So is the only issue that`s going to move the Tea Party
immigration?

HOLLEN: Well, that appears to be the issue. They`ve decided to, again,
threaten to shutdown the Department, the funding for the Department until
they get their way on immigration reform in the President`s executive
order.

You know, we all disagree, at least I surely disagree with the decision by
the federal district court judge but you would have thought Republicans
would see that as an opportunity now to do the right thing in funding the
Department Homeland Security. They haven`t taken advantage of that.

SCHULTZ: OK. So is Boehner worried about his speakership? Is this -- in
anyway stretch of imagination personal that he knows that if it goes up for
a vote then the political naives come out and he has no chance and he has
to do this?

HOLLEN: Well, this maybe the moment the Speaker is got to decide to do
what`s right for the country not just for keeping his seat warm.

I don`t know all the dynamics, Ed...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOLLEN: ... in the Republican Caucus right now but what I do know is
what`s clear to everybody, you know...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOLLEN: ... most Republicans in the Senate, Democrats are like, this is a
moment for the Speaker do the right thing for the country.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, is there any thing short of full funding that the
Democrats would agree to? OK. You didn`t vote for the three-week fix.
Give me a number.

HOLLEN: The number is the full year. Why should we do for the Department
of Homeland Security anything less than we do for any other agency of the
federal government? All the other agencies in the federal government are
funded through the remaining of this fiscal year, to the end of September.

The Republicans held up only funding for the Department of Homeland
Security despite the threats we saw in Paris, despite the threats we saw in
Denmark, despite of what we saw in the rest of New York. Despite of all of
that, they have decided to hold funding for the Department of Homeland
Security, one of the main departments since, of course, essential to try to
protect us from those terrorist threats. They decided to hold that hostage
and play games with that.

So let`s just do for the Department of Homeland Security what we do for the
other agencies of the federal government to make sure that we can continue
to operate as a functioning federal government.

SCHULTZ: How do you think Mitch McConnell feels tonight?

HOLLEN: Well, I think that he`s actually -- what it shows him in a way is
that he has made the right call in the sense that the Senate is not the one
-- is not the body, you know, responsible for preventing the funding from
flow into Department of Homeland Security.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOLLEN: I mean, in a sense, he -- at the end of the day, he took him a
long time to get there but at the end of the day he did his job and on the
bipartisan basis the Senate voted to fund the Department of Homeland
Security.

That bill, again, is right here. I mean its right here on the House of
Representatives, we can get it done right away and move on to talk about
other important issues for the country.

SCHULTZ: And finally, it sounds like the Democrats have done their
business, you`ve said what you`re going to vote on. It`s either this or
nothing. There is no negotiation tonight. You want the full funding. You
don`t want it to immigration. Now it`s up to Boehner. It`s the end of the
day for the Democrats.

HOLLEN: Well, and just to be clear, Ed, I mean, that`s exactly what`s in
the bill thus before the House, the Senate Bill...

SCHULTZ: Yeah, yeah. Here we go. It`s 68 to 31 -- yeah.

HOLLEN: It`s simply. It`s clean. It`s bipartisan. Let`s vote in a
bipartisan way in the House of Representatives. I know the votes are here
to pass and you`ve got every single Democrat, everyone that wants to vote
for a full funding for Department of Homeland Security through the end of
the fiscal year, 100 percent and I know (inaudible)...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOLLEN: ... and I know Republicans to get a majority of the vote if only
the Speaker would put democracy and the ability of democracy to work its
will in front of this small fraction, they continuous to lead the country
down this dead end path.

SCHULTZ: All right. Congressman Van Hollen, thanks for joining us
tonight. And incase who just joined this, the vote was 203 to 224. The
three-week extension did not pass. There is no plan B and the House is in
recess. The funding expires tonight at midnight. Maybe there`ll be a
development later on in the House and maybe Boehner will change his mind.
We`ll see. I don`t think he will.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source