Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1014, I call up the bill (H.R. 7147) making further consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7147, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act.

This bill marks the final measure of our FY26 agenda. Our work here is about one of the most important duties, which is keeping the American people and our homeland safe.

This legislation delivers just that and upholds the America First agenda through supporting border patrol enforcement agents, detention and deportation efforts, cutting-edge technology to detect illicit activity, and Coast Guard investments to counter Communist China's aggression in the maritime sphere.

We enhance resources to combat fentanyl and other deadly drugs, while safeguarding children through expanded investigation into human trafficking and forced labor.

From our borders and ports to aviation and cyberspace, this legislation delivers the personnel, training, and technology needed to reinforce our defenses and confront those who wish us harm.

It also prioritizes strong and resilient communities by bolstering disaster preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. Subcommittee Chairman Mark Amodei prioritized safety at every level. Even in the face of political challenge, he and the ranking member, Mr. Cuellar of Texas, worked together to produce a serious and responsible bill.

H.R. 7147 is focused on outcomes, not partisan rhetoric. It equips frontline personnel, strengthens enforcement, and provides the certainty DHS needs to carry out its mission effectively.

I thank our Members and staff for their work, and I urge support for this bipartisan legislation.

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Mr. COLE.

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

I want to begin by thanking two outstanding appropriators: Mr. Amodei, the chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee of Appropriations, and his working partner and colleague, the ranking member, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar). They have done an extraordinary job on this bill.

We have heard a lot of rhetoric today. Not much of it has anything to do with what is in the bill. The bill itself is a good, strong bill. It is a bill for, frankly, the two Members who worked well together. It is not a perfect bill, as my friend Mr. Cuellar said, certainly not from his perspective, but it is a solid bill. There are no poison pills in this bill.

It focuses on making the American people more secure. It does so economically and efficiently, and it does so in a way that, honestly, should make every member of the committee proud.

This is a difficult bill to bring forward, no doubt about that. Each side has struggled with it over the years. I am very proud that the ranking member and the chairman worked together to bring a bill to the floor. That has not happened in a long, long time. Usually, it just sort of gets muddled in. It says a great deal about their professionalism and their cooperation.

If you listened to the debate, you would think we have law enforcement in chaos and that somehow our country is not secure. Quite the opposite is true. Quite frankly, President Trump should be commended for what he and his administration have accomplished in a matter of weeks and months that most of us thought would take years.

Our borders are secure. They are more secure now than they have ever been. It wasn't that long ago that I was on this floor talking about 15,000 a day, 10,000 a day coming in illegally. That has stopped.

As a consequence of that, crime has gone down, not up. That is a great success for the American people. Drug trafficking is down, not up. That is a great success for the American people. The scourge of human trafficking, the exploitation of usually young women and young men, has been dramatically lowered. That is thanks to President Trump, the people who he has put in charge of our border security and our internal security, and the hard work of our Coast Guard.

There is a lot in this bill that has nothing to do with ICE. We fund the Border Patrol here. Are we supposed to not pay those men and women who have kept us secure? We fund the Coast Guard, which, as my friends point out and the distinguished chair of this committee pointed out, has been refocused on some of the maritime security issues, particularly relating to foreign adversaries as far away as China.

This bill deals with FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. If you are voting against this bill, you are voting against funding the people who will help you in a hurricane and a tornado or a disaster of some sort. Why in the world should they be penalized?

I think we should look at the bill in its totality. We should look at the difficulty of the task that we asked the chairman and the ranking member to do. We should thank them for the hard work and wisdom that they both exhibited in bringing this product to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I do worry about the rhetoric around this bill. I personally believe it is not intentional, but it is reckless encouraging people to believe that we have masses of bad actors in a particular agency. Some of the rhetoric--mostly not on this floor, let me say that--that I have heard in the country about comparing law enforcement officers to the gestapo or the Nazis, that is terrible. That is not true. That is not who they are. That is not what they do. That kind of rhetoric, when we hear it and wherever we hear it from, is dangerous and reckless and wrong.

We have had a good debate here today on a variety of bills, and I will end on a little more positive note.

Mr. Speaker, I, again, thank my friend, the ranking member, for her work. We don't always agree on everything. This bill is probably an example of that, but we work together well and professionally. One of the reasons we can consider this bill separately is my friend made that request and made it very convincingly to me. I know she is a person of good faith, and I will work with her wherever I can.

Again, I thank her for her friendship and leadership. We will not agree on this matter today, on this particular item, but there is much, much more that we agree on than we disagree on. We would not have gotten to this point without working together.

Having said that, I do think this is pretty clear, Mr. Speaker. The right thing to do here is to fund the people that protect America, that defend our borders, that help us in times of disaster, and, yes, who find criminals who have come into the country illegally, committed crimes, and make sure they are expelled. That makes America safer and better and more secure.

I thank the President and his administration for doing that. I think we should rally around them and show our support for what they have done by passing this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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