Housing for the 21st Century Act
Floor Speech
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Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I want to begin with a moment of solemn gratitude. Yesterday, we received devastating news. U.S. Army SFC Noah Tietjens of Bellevue, NE, was killed in Kuwait during an unmanned aircraft system attack while supporting Operation Epic Furry.
He was assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command out of Des Moines, IA. Sergeant Tietjens enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2006 as a wheeled vehicle mechanic. He gave two decades of his life to this country, deploying to Kuwait in 2009 and again in 2019--always answering the call, always showing up.
His record of service speaks for itself. Sergeant Tietjens earned the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary and Service Medals, the Iraq Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, the Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, and the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with ``M'' Device.
Each ribbon and each medal marks a chapter of life poured out in service to something larger than himself. We honor Sergeant Tietjens today, and we hold his family, his unit, and all who loved him in our hearts.
In addition to Sergeant Tietjens, five other American heroes did not come home. All six of these servicemembers gave their last full measure of devotion in service to this country, and we will never forget them. To their families--their mothers, their fathers, their spouses, their children--a grateful nation stands with you and prays for you. May they rest in eternal peace. Iran
Mr. President, last week, President Trump made a decisive call to strike at the world's leading State sponsor of terrorism. The Iranian regime is responsible for the death of hundreds of Americans and continued to pose unacceptable threats to this country--to the United States.
Our brave men and women in uniform carried out Operation Epic Furry with courage, precision, and unwavering commitment to protecting this Nation and to protecting the world from one of its greatest threats. Because of their valor, Iran's ability to project force and project terror throughout the region has been significantly degraded, and their nuclear ambitions have been devastated.
But the threat does not end with the strikes this weekend. Iran's terrorist proxy networks are already embedded in our hemisphere, in part because of years of open border policies that left this country dangerously exposed. Department of Homeland Security
Mr. President, the risk of a terror attack on American soil has gone up, and our Department of Homeland Security, it is shut down--not understaffed, not underfunded--it is shut down, for 19 days and counting.
This Agency was created on September 11, 2001, for one purpose: to make sure that we never again suffer a catastrophic attack on our homeland. DHS, they guard our airports; it responds when hurricanes and wildfires devastate our communities; it defends our power grids, our water systems, and our financial networks from foreign adversaries who seek to bring us to our knees. And right now, well, this critical Agency is crippled.
Sixty-one thousand TSA employees are working without pay, including 42,000 screeners who are standing at security checkpoints in airports around this country at this very moment. They are screening your bags; they are checking your boarding passes; they are doing their jobs with professionalism--all while not knowing how they are going to pay their rent, how they are going to feed their children, or how they are going to keep their lights on.
This is not just unfair; this is a disgrace. Two-thirds of CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has been furloughed. The people whose sole job is to protect our power grids, to protect our hospitals, our financial networks from Chinese and Iranians and Russian cyber attacks, they have been sent home.
FEMA's emergency response capacity is totally disrupted.
The Coast Guard, the Coast Guard is unfunded.
The Secret Service is strained.
And every single day that this drags on, the window for a catastrophic attack on this country--on American soil--it opens up a little wider. It is these organizations that are bearing the brunt of this government shutdown.
So I would ask my Democratic colleagues--I will ask them directly-- why? Republicans have put forward a counterproposal. The ball--well, it is in Senator Schumer's court; and so far, do you know what? We all know what. He has chosen politics. He has chosen politics over protecting American people.
Well, let me be clear about where Republicans stand. We will not accept any agreement that ties the hands of Federal law enforcement. We will not accept provisions designed to obstruct immigration enforcement. We have been ready to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security and get every one of those 61,000 workers back to doing the jobs that keep this country safe.
Mr. President, let me close with this: Six Americans just gave their lives to make this world safer. The very least we can do is ensure that the Agencies defending our homeland here at home have the funding, the personnel, and the operational capacity to do their job.
To my colleagues across the aisle: End this shutdown, fund our Department of Homeland Security, and stop holding our national security hostage.
To the American people: Know that there are those of us who will not stop fighting until every Agency charged with protecting this homeland is fully funded, fully staffed, and fully focused on our safety because that above all else is our most basic responsibility.
God bless our fallen heroes. God bless every servicemember still in harm's way. God bless the United States of America.
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