Providing for Disposition of Senate Amendment to H.R. Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I am here today representing the people of Houston, Texas, asking House Republicans to take up, to put for a vote, the deal that was agreed to in the Senate that would fully fund FEMA, the Coast Guard, as well as TSA.

Houston has a unique impact in all of this. We are home to Bush Intercontinental Airport, right in my district, which has seen some of the longest wait times in the entire Nation and has had some of the highest TSA callout rates in the entire Nation.

We are also home to a U.S. Coast Guard base. Sector Houston-Galveston has more than 1,500 personnel, folks who are not going to be receiving paychecks if we don't agree to this deal.

We are also one of the most disaster-prone places in the entire country. We have had 500-year storm after storm, flood after flood, where people have lost their property, their dignity, and, in many instances, their lives.

We rely on FEMA. We rely on FEMA workers. We need this deal to happen, and the deal is already right here for the taking.

We have already seen that Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats have agreed on a clean funding bill that would fully fund these agencies and would benefit all the American people, particularly the folks in Houston, Texas.

I am calling on my colleagues in the House of Representatives, my Republican colleagues, and Speaker Johnson: Put this deal forward for a vote. Give the American people what they want, and that is a fully funded TSA, Coast Guard, and FEMA.

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