Van Hollen Discusses Funding for DHS and the Fight Against ISIS on MSNBC

Press Release

RONAN FARROW, MSNBC: Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is the Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee. Chris, thank you so much for being here. A lot of people are looking at the President's budget and saying this is a picture of a nation doubling down on these overseas conflicts. Is the President's effort to step away from some of those conflicts effectively dead at this point?

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well, the President's budget does two things in this area. First of all, it reduces the overall money in what we call the Overseas Contingency account because of the President's efforts to continue to draw down our troops in Afghanistan. So, the account for Overseas Contingency is actually going down in next year's budget compared to this. But, I just came from the first hearing in the House of Representatives on the President's budget for the coming year and his budget does absolutely provide the resources necessary to fight ISIS and to help our allies like Jordan in that fight. But those resources are there even as we're able to draw down our troop levels in places like Afghanistan.

FARROW: In recent days we've seen this rapid succession of an ISIS beheading and now a burning alive. Do you see that changing political will power amongst your colleagues? Is there going to be a call to ramp up this fight?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I think there's already the resolve to keep the fight with ISIS. After all, the President is already providing support, air support, to Iraqi forces and Kurdish forces, both in Iraq and in Syria to push back ISIS, to push them out of Iraq over time, trying to make progress on that. And to fight them in places like Kobani in Syria. So, I think the will is there and as I say the resources are in the President's budget to do that. Now, I will say one troubling thing out of the hearing is even as the President has put forward his budget for next year, here in Congress we have not completed action on… the Department of Homeland Security. And funding for that will run out in a few weeks. Unfortunately, our Republican colleagues have taken the position that even with the ramped-up terrorist threat in places like France and Europe and elsewhere that they are not going to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless the President changes his immigration reform policies.

FARROW: Tell me about that. How damaging would that be to substantive security efforts on the ground?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, it would be very damaging because the Homeland Security Department is, as the name suggests, the first line of defense here at home. We need to make sure that we're fighting ISIS in places like Iraq and Syria and stopping their advance, but we also need to make sure that we're doing everything possible to prevent terrorist attacks here in the United States, like the attacks that we saw in France and elsewhere. So that's why it is so, so reckless for our colleagues on the Republican side to say they are going to defund the Department of Homeland Security unless the President comes around to their perspective when it comes to issues like immigration reform. Republicans in Congress should pass their own immigration reform bill -- but they should not hold that issue hostage to our security and funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

FARROW: Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, thank you so much for taking us inside that budget debate right now. A lot at stake, clearly.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.

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