Housing for the 21st Century Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, it has been nearly 6 weeks--6 weeks-- since Alex Pretti was killed by masked Federal agents in broad daylight. It has been over 9 weeks since Renee Good was killed. And day after day, week after week, we have seen Americans brutalized by an out-of-control Department of Homeland Security--American citizens detained without cause, children ripped away from their families--as this administration treats them like political pawns in their sick games. We have seen peaceful protesters have their windows broken in by untrained and unidentifiable agents. And we have seen more people get hurt and even die because of how ICE and Border Patrol have been conducting themselves.

In this entire time, Democrats have been pushing for serious reform to rein in these Agencies. For months, I have been at the table in good faith, pushing to secure basic accountability measures for ICE and Border Patrol. We are talking about standards local police already follow across the country.

But even before Alex Pretti was shot and killed, Republicans and this White House, in particular, were telling us no on many basic reforms that would rein in ICE and CBP.

We pushed for commonsense steps to make sure poorly trained agents and officers do not trample the basic rights of American citizens and kill them for no reason. And we pushed for steps to prevent these rogue Agencies from hiding the facts from the public and sweeping everything under the rug.

But my colleagues across the aisle came back to us and said: Sorry, we cannot agree to those.

Sometimes, my Republican colleagues were willing to take one modest step or another, which I appreciate, only to have to come back and say the White House was not willing to do that, and they had to hold the line. Or worse, they backtracked on measures we agreed to because of fears of what the White House would think.

And now, here we find ourselves, nearly 6 weeks after Alex Pretti's brutal killing, and Republicans so far have continued to refuse to join us to pass any commonsense reforms to prevent more Americans from being hurt or even killed by masked Federal agents.

As I have said many times, we are not asking for the Moon. We are asking for basic steps to protect Americans' constitutional rights and their safety.

There is nothing new or controversial about body cameras or requiring identification be displayed. There is nothing extreme about insisting that ICE and Border Patrol follow the same standards as everyone else when it comes to use of force or needing a warrant before smashing in someone's door and dragging them away. These are common sense, and they are overwhelmingly popular.

This is what the American people are demanding. But Republicans have decided they would rather shut down DHS than work with us to rein in these rogue Agencies. Republicans know full well that Democrats do want to ensure that TSA and CISA and FEMA and other important Agencies are funded.

What Democrats have a problem with is funding rogue Agencies that are actively violating court orders and our civil rights and putting Americans' safety at risk. We cannot--we will not--cut a blank check for funding without reforms for ICE and Border Patrol.

But if Republicans keep dragging their feet on those basic reforms we are asking for to protect people from those rogue Federal Agencies, then we should at least make sure that TSA agents get paid and FEMA is fully funded while those negotiations continue.

TSA agents should not go without pay because Republicans refuse to agree to commonsense reforms instead of cutting another blank check for Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller to terrorize Americans.

So, yes, let's pay our Coast Guard and our TSA. Let's replenish the Disaster Relief Fund and support other work that we overwhelmingly all agree on. I have a bill that I will offer in a moment that will do that. We can pass it right now, while pressing ahead with negotiations on ICE and Border Patrol to get basic reforms and accountability the American people want.

All week, I have heard my colleagues on the other side of the aisle loudly say funding for DHS could not be more important in this moment. They have argued the instability this President has unleashed with his reckless war in Iran means Democrats must now fund DHS, including ICE, with no reforms at all.

Now, there are some obvious problems with that argument, like the bizarre notion that because Trump started a reckless war with Iran, Democrats now must rush and cut a blank check; or the fact that the biggest threat to cyber and counterterrorism work at DHS seems to be Kristi Noem, who, by the way, over the last year, has gutted CISA and has taken folks off the terrorism beat to deport farmworkers with no criminal history.

But put all that aside. I completely agree we should fund our cyber defense Agencies and FEMA and TSA.

So I hope my Republican colleagues, who also believe--I know they do--that these Agencies are important and have been making the case they do need funding, will join with me today to get this bill passed while talks on ICE and Border Patrol and much needed reform and accountability measures can continue.

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, unfortunately, what has become very clear is that Republicans would rather keep the entire DHS shut down than work with Democrats to prevent more Americans from being killed by masked agents.

My Democratic colleagues and I have been very, very clear on the reforms we need. It is not secret, and we have been pushing for them for weeks on end, in good faith, to finalize a DHS bill that funds TSA and FEMA while reining in ICE and the CBP. But Republicans and the White House have now, for months, refused to agree to those basic reforms that we need to make to keep Americans safe. They have said again and again that we need to fund FEMA and TSA and other key Agencies. Well, I just tried to pass a bill that would make sure that those Agencies are funded while talks on reforms and accountability measures for ICE and Border Patrol continue. So guess what. They blocked that too.

Now, this is not complicated. Democrats want to get TSA officers paid and fund disaster relief, but we will not vote to help Republicans spend one more dime letting Stephen Miller terrorize our cities, and we will not vote to cut a blank check so that ICE can barge into Americans' homes without a warrant. We will not vote to allow ICE agents to continue wearing masks as they terrorize our communities and evade accountability. We need accountability for ICE and for Border Patrol.

It is not just Democrats' saying that. The American people overwhelmingly agree that Trump's and Noem's lawless rampage has got to come to an end. People feel that way because we have all seen what has happened. It is in plain sight. We have all seen the videos of people who are tackled and pepper-sprayed in the face and seen the protesters who are gassed for no reason. We have seen the horrific shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and we have seen Kristi Noem, ICE, and the Border Patrol blatantly lie and slander people like Renee and Alex and Marimar Martinez by falsely calling them domestic terrorists.

What we have not yet seen is accountability. That is what has got to end. No number of Republican revotes on the same failed bill is going to change that and while our bill to fund the Coast Guard and TSA and FEMA, as negotiations continue, was just objected to. So I am ready at any time to pass that. It is the right thing to do.

Instead of blocking bills to pay TSA agents or wasting time with dead-on- arrival legislation, I hope that Republicans will listen to what we are asking for and listen to what their constituents are asking for. We need to see ICE have accountability. Work with us to pass those reforms in order to fund that full Agency.

With that, I want my colleagues to know I will continue to work to get that done.

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Mrs. MURRAY. In particular, I am frustrated that my colleagues across the aisle and in the White House are still refusing to agree to work with us on commonsense measures to protect our constituents from being shot and even killed by unidentifiable, untrained ICE and Border Patrol agents.

Democrats have been very clear on this for weeks. We want to fund FEMA and TSA, and we want to protect Americans from the violence at the hands of rogue Federal Agencies. This is not complicated. We can and we must do both.

I have always been very clear about what we cannot do, which is cut another blank check for Kristi Noem to terrorize our communities. Unfortunately, that is what the bill from the junior Senator from Alabama would do. It would kick the can down the road and give more money to ICE and Border Patrol to trample American rights. That is not an acceptable outcome.

If Republicans won't agree to the commonsense measures we have been pushing for weeks--measures that police departments across America already adhere to--then I am absolutely willing and ready to fund the rest of DHS while talks on ICE and CBP continue. In fact, that is what the bill did that I just offered.

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