Van Hollen on NPR: Republican "Ploy' to Shut Down DHS "Totally Irresponsible'

Interview

Today Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen joined NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook to discuss the immediate need for Congress to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

TOM ASHBROOK, WBUR: With us right now from Washington, Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat, Maryland's 8th district, Ranking Member on the House Budget Committee, right in the middle of the money issue here. Congressman Chris Van Hollen welcome back to On Point.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Tom, it's great to be with you.

ASHBROOK: Do you think this going right to the edge and over?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, it's certainly going right to the edge. You just heard my colleague Jim Jordan again say that Republicans are willing to cut off funding for the Department of Homeland Security unless they get their way with respect to the President's immigration policy. That's a reckless position, and I think the overwhelming majority in the country recognize that's a reckless position. You've got a growing number of Republican Members of Congress like Senator McCain recognizing that that's irresponsible. The only question will be whether, at the end of the day, Speaker Boehner allows the House to vote up or down on a clean bill, assuming that one comes out of the Senate.

ASHBROOK: A clean bill that would just give or not give funding to the Department of Homeland Security. You may be right about the bottom line, Congressman Van Hollen, but to be very precise, what Congressman Jordan said was that the President's exercise of executive authority looks unconstitutional to him and a court in Texas, he said, the federal court, and he doesn't want to go with funding while he sees this overreach, executive overreach, on the docket.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I happen to think the President's decisions with respect to immigration reform were both the right policy and also fully constitutional within the President's powers. But Jim Jordan and others have a right to disagree on that, and their recourse is, number one, through the courts. And as you indicated, the Texas judge made a ruling, not on the merits, I should stress, but did stay the President's order, so it could go through the court system. You would have thought that Republicans in Congress would see that as the exit ramp, as Senator McCain and others have said. You know, Members of Congress are not members of the judicial branch. Let the judge decide on the constitutionality. And if Republicans in Congress want to weigh in on immigration reform, they should take up an immigration reform bill, a piece of legislation. We had a bill that had passed the Senate on a bipartisan basis well over a year and a half ago. Speaker Boehner and House Republicans never even allowed us a vote on that bill last year -- it's now expired and gone away. So Republicans are in control of the Congress, they should step up and put forward their own immigration reform bill. They haven't done that. And this ploy to shut down the Department of Homeland Security, given the threats that you outlined and especially in the aftermath of what happened in France and Denmark, is just totally irresponsible. So, have your debate on immigration reform -- but don't threaten to defund the security of the Department of Homeland Security in the process.

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