Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. The good news, Mr. Speaker, is that we are paying the people who protect us, and this side will not admit it. DHS is getting 86 percent. ICE is 86 percent funded. CBP is 85 percent funded.

Don't tell the American people, Mr. Speaker, that they are not getting paid. They are getting paid, and you know it. If you say otherwise, you are misrepresenting the facts to the American people.

Now, somebody said ``our bill.'' It is not our bill. It is your bill. Most of you voted for this bill and every nickel that we are asking you to vote again on, because this was a compromised bill. All the funding that was in Ms. DeLauro's bill was a bipartisan agreement, all of it. That is not a political game. That is saying: We will take it.

What you are saying is: Unless you take everything, we are not going to give you anything. That is what you are saying.

Mr. Speaker, that is not how we legislate in this House. We have to compromise.

Now, we have some problems because you tell us if you don't allow ICE agents to break into homes without a warrant, we will not fund TSA, we will not fund the Coast Guard, we will not fund CISA. That is what you are saying, but you are trying to pretend to the American people that it is somehow us, who are ready to vote for 98 percent of the bill, but you say: No, either all or nothing.

Think about it honestly. You are shutting down TSA. The American people don't care who is at fault, so we are both trying to say the other guy is at fault. But today we could come together, all--at least 400 of us--and open TSA tonight. You won't do it because you want masked people arresting people on the streets of America without any accountability.

That is what this is about. Democrats want accountability. They want to honor the Constitution. They want to honor the laws of the United States. They want to honor the norms of police activity in this country.

That is what makes us different. We talk about an exceptional Nation. That is why we are exceptional, and that is why Democrats want to make sure those protections for the American people are included in this bill.

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Mr. HOYER. Ladies and gentlemen, let's be honest with one another. This is a tactical argument. You are afraid that if you separate out those two instances of the Border Patrol and ICE, you are afraid that you may have to honor what the American people want, and that is constraints. That is what you are against: constraints on illegal actions by police officers.

The American people are hoping that you will support constraints and support a bill, our bill. Republicans and Democrats put that bill together that Ms. DeLauro has introduced. Open up the government and open it up today.

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