Further Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from New York. We are here today to do a single job, and that should be to fund fully the Department of Homeland Security. Anything else is an abdication of our responsibility. Anything else is an act of
legislative malpractice simply because of the inability of my friends on the other side of the aisle to satisfy the thirst of the extreme rightwing anti-immigration base of the party. So we are playing political games at a time when the safety and the security of the American people are being threatened.

I know that all too well, Mr. Speaker, because earlier this week the FBI uncovered a plot in Brooklyn in the communities that I represent where individuals sought to impart bombs to the Coney Island neighborhood that I represent. And yet we are here playing games, government by crisis. This, of course, is nothing new: fiscal cliff, sequestration, 16-day government shutdown in October of 2013, a flirtation with defaulting on our debt, and now we want to shut down the Department of Homeland Security because my friends on the other side of the aisle can't get their act together.

We need all hands on deck right now, Mr. Speaker. That means the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and the Department of Homeland Security working together. Why would we want to either shut the Department down or create a level of uncertainty where people within the Department of Homeland Security are distracted when we know that the terrorists only have to be right once and where we have to be correct 100 percent of the time in order to protect the American people?

You claim to be strict constructionists as it relates to the Constitution. We have an article I legislative branch, an article II executive branch, and an article III judicial branch. The Founders said if there is a conflict, if you have got concerns, if you have got constitutional issues, then let the judicial branch work it out. That is what is going on right now.

We should be doing our job instead of taking the American people on another reckless legislative joyride that is simply going to crash and burn, this time affecting the safety and security of the American people.

They want us to focus on good-paying jobs. They want us to focus on retirement security, higher education affordability, better childcare, strengthening the middle class and all those who aspire to be part of it. They want us to further the American Dream. But we are here playing games with their safety and security. It is a shame.

Let's get back to doing the business of the American people. Vote down this rule, and vote down the underlying 3-week reckless extension.

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