Housing for the 21st Century Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. RICKETTS. Mr. President, it has now been 26 days since Homeland Security has been funded and 51 days since the Democrats have announced their intention not to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

The Democrats want the Department of Homeland Security to be closed. How do I know they want it to be closed? Well, it is because the Democrats are refusing even to talk to Republicans about what sort of deal we may be able to do to get the funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

Just this past weekend, my freshman colleague from Alabama who sits on the Appropriations Committee and has the subcommittee that oversees the Department of Homeland Security offered the ranking Democrat on Appropriations a meeting, a meeting with our Republican leader, a meeting with the Appropriations chair--the esteemed Senator from Maine--and the White House. And the ranking Democrat refused to even meet, much less negotiate.

Republicans want the Department of Homeland Security opened. Democrats want to keep it shut down. Democrats are playing politics with our national security and the safety of Americans and people in my home State of Nebraska.

The Department of Homeland Security is funded to pay, for example, our Coast Guard. In recent days, our Coast Guard in the Gulf of America just intercepted a shipment of marijuana and cocaine worth about $1.3 million. That is what the Coast Guard does, keeps us safe from illegal drugs coming into our country, and yet they go unpaid.

In fact, a Nebraskan called in to my office. His son and daughter-in- law in the Coast Guard are deployed right now in Bahrain. They are risking their lives for us, they are risking their lives to keep us safe, and the Democrats won't pay them.

Or let's take your TSA agents that handle the security for a billion travelers in the United States every year. They, too, are working without pay because the Democrats will not fund the Department of Homeland Security. TSA agents process about 2\1/2\ million people every day going through our airports to keep us safe, and the Democrats won't pay them.

I stood here not long ago, sadly, talking about our air traffic controllers. I read letters from them and how the government shutdown that Chuck Schumer led the Democrats on just a short while ago put pressure on their families. Many of those air traffic controllers were veterans.

The minority leader led the Democrats on the longest shutdown in American history. Does nobody remember that, what it did to the families? And yet the Democrats are doing the same thing again now on the Department of Homeland Security.

The Agency that is assigned to keep us safe from the standpoint of cyber security--the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency--has furloughed 1,200 of their 2,000 people. Only 800 people are working right now, putting us at risk.

We have a conflict in the Middle East right now with Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, that country that regularly chants ``Death to America.'' We know that Iran has plotted assassinations of our President, other officials, and dissidents here on our very soil. And yet the Democrats are not willing to fund the Agency that is meant to help keep us safe. Again, they are playing politics with our national security and our safety.

There is common ground we can come to, to be able to get the Department of Homeland Security open. But if the Democrats refuse to even meet with Republicans to discuss this, the only conclusion I can draw is that they don't want the Department of Homeland Security open. And so they put all of us at risk, including my fellow Nebraskans.

Democrats must come to the table to meet. We must reopen the Department of Homeland Security. We must pay our heros in the Coast Guard, TSA, Secret Service, CISA, all these people who are working right now to keep us safe are keeping us safe during this conflict in the Middle East with the largest state sponsor of terrorism.

The least the Democrats can do is agree to meet with leadership and have a conversation.

This must end. Democrats must talk.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source