Providing for Disposition of Senate Amendment to H.R. Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026
Floor Speech
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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, the bill we are debating tonight will never become law. It is dead on arrival, doomed. The Senate has gone home. They did their job. They worked together in a bipartisan way to negotiate, deliberate, and strike an agreement that passed unanimously out of the Senate Chamber.
Imagine, Democrats and Republicans said ``yes.'' How often does this happen?
House Republican leadership refuses to bring it up for a vote because they know if they did, it would pass overwhelmingly. By blocking the Senate's agreement from receiving a vote, Republican leadership extends the shutdown, and that means another missed paycheck for Federal workers.
What is the Republican leadership position? Let us continue to withhold paychecks from TSA agents. Let us continue to force them to sleep in their cars, to continue to have to sell their plasma, to stay frightened to death of evictions.
Republican leadership is doing this because they do not want to enact even the most fundamental constraints on ICE, a rogue, lawless, and reckless agency. They want to allow them to continue harassing, beating up, and, yes, even killing American citizens.
They would rather prolong this shutdown, continue withholding paychecks from TSA workers, and keep extending the lines at airport security than enact a requirement that Federal officers obtain a warrant from a judge before they kick in your front door or they pick you up on the street.
They do not want to require independent investigations into egregious misconduct by ICE officers. They want to allow them to continue to detain and deport American citizens, allow them to go to sensitive locations, like churches and hospitals and schools.
They side with out-of-control Federal agencies over the responsible, dedicated workers who keep air travel safe.
Only yesterday, President Trump decided that he has the ability to pay these workers. If the White House believes they have the authority and the funds to pay these workers, then they have had this authority all along for the past 42 days. However, what they chose to do was withhold the paychecks from TSA workers for political gain. It is shameful.
ICE is funded. Don't listen to them. They have $75 billion plus another $10 billion in a slush fund, and they can do whatever they want with it. Customs and Border Protection have $65 billion and another $11 billion in the Senate bill. Spare us the lies.
The American people know exactly who is responsible for prolonging this shutdown. The TSA workers, putting in yet another shift with no pay, will know when they see Republican Members hightailing it home to enjoy their spring break.
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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, we have an opportunity to end this shutdown. If we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up the bipartisan bill passed unanimously by the United States Senate.
If the House passed the bipartisan Senate agreement, I sincerely doubt, my friends, that the President of the United States would veto it. We can stop the madness tonight. Instead, Republican leadership is choosing to continue it for politics and political gain. It is shameful.
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