Fiscal Year 2015 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill

Floor Speech

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month I voted against the
Homeland Security Appropriations Bill for the remainder of Fiscal Year
(FY) 2015 (H.R. 240), due to House Republicans' irresponsible attempt
to hijack this must-pass legislation.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is at the forefront of
protecting our nation from terrorist threats. The women and men on the
frontline of securing America's borders deserve a clean appropriations
bill that provides them with the funding and resources they need to
keep our families, communities, and our nation safe. Instead of
bringing a bipartisan bill to the Floor, House Republicans opted to
pick a political fight with the President, jeopardizing our country's security needs.

Republicans voted to add five poison pill amendments targeting the
President's executive actions on immigration to this critical funding
bill. One of the most offensive and dangerous of these amendments is
the DeSantis/Roby amendment. The National Task Force to End Sexual and
Domestic Violence Against Women strongly opposes this and other
amendments, which they describe as ``overly broad, sweep large numbers
of victims into their scope and ignore the best interests of victims
and their children.'' In addition, the Task Force urges Congress ``to
prioritize the needs of immigrant victims of domestic and sexual
violence, and reject these amendments.''

Other amendments proposed by House Republicans would further derail
the Administration's progress on immigration reform. The Aderholt
amendment would block the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability
(DAPA) program and expansions to the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) program. In addition, the amendment would block
measures to strengthen border security, facilitate legal immigration,
promote citizenship and immigrant integration, and spur innovation and
entrepreneurship. The Blackburn amendment would terminate the existing
DACA program and prevent hundreds of thousands of young people
(DREAMers) who already have come forward, passed background checks,
obtained protection, and followed the rules from renewing DACA. The
Salmon amendment is based on the false premise that the president's
recent executive actions create an incentive under the Affordable Care
Act for employers to hire deferred action recipients. Finally, the
Schock amendment also is premised on the false notion that deferred
action applications unfairly delay the adjudication of all
applications.

Jeopardizing this must-pass legislation, critical to our national
security, is unacceptable. I urge my Republican colleagues to bring a
clean bill for the remainder of FY2015 for DHS, without further delay
and without the distraction of partisan politics.

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