Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEGUSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for her incredible leadership during such tumultuous times.

Mr. Speaker, I had not intended to speak. I was watching this debate unfold from my office in Rayburn and could not resist the temptation to come down to the floor to call out the clear intellectual dishonesty that we have heard for the better part of the last hour from my Republican colleagues.

Spare us these crocodile tears.

Let me read you two headlines, Mr. Speaker: ``[Ted] Cruz proposes splitting ICE from Homeland Security funding bill to end airport chaos.'' Another headline: ``Republican Senator Says Trump Killed Bipartisan Deal to Pay TSA workers `by the End of the Week.' ''

Mr. Speaker, you have multiple Republican Senators saying what we all know to be true, which is that Republicans refuse to come to the table and pass a bill that is sitting at the Clerk's desk that the ranking member has introduced to pay TSA workers, to pay folks at FEMA, and to ensure that public servants working on cybersecurity and at the Coast Guard are fully compensated. We could do that today. Republicans refuse to do so.

That is not me talking. That is Ted Cruz talking. That is Senator John Kennedy talking. Every day, another Republican concedes to the reality that has befallen all of us.

I would implore my colleagues that if they truly care about ending this crisis at our airports, pass our bill to fund TSA. Do that today.

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