[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 22 (Tuesday, February 10, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H869]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY FUNDING
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Roybal-Allard) for 5 minutes.
Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, the primary responsibility of
Congress is to keep our Nation safe. However, we are 133 days into the
2015 fiscal year, and the Department of Homeland Security is without a
budget.
The Department is trying to fulfill its mission under the uncertainty
of a continuing resolution that is set to expire in 18 days. Last week,
the Department of Homeland Security submitted its fiscal year 2016
budget, but unlike every department and agency, DHS was at the
disadvantage of not having a current funding level for its essential
security functions.
There is the mistaken impression that the Department of Homeland
Security is doing just fine under the continuing resolution. Some feel
that, if DHS funding expires, no problem exists since approximately 85
percent of DHS personnel are deemed essential and are required to work.
While it is true that frontline agents and officers, like those at the
CBP, ICE, the Coast Guard, and the Secret Service, would continue
working, they would do so without being paid. Is this fair to expect
these dedicated Americans to put their lives on the line without pay
and the ability to care for their families? I think not, and I believe
the American people would agree on the unfairness of this proposal.
A greater concern is that the Secretary of Homeland Security has
warned us that not having an appropriation for 2015 is threatening our
national security. Without a full year's budget, the Department is
limited in its ability to advance the Secretary's unity of effort
initiative to improve interagency coordination, making it more
effective in achieving its security missions. It limits the Secretary's
ability to implement aggressively his Southern Border and Approaches
Campaign, and it creates uncertainty regarding ICE's ability to
transfer unaccompanied children to HHS for humane treatment and its
capacity to detain and deport dangerous criminals.
Operating under the lower allocations and uncertainty of a continuing
resolution also has the potential of delaying and, ultimately,
increasing the cost of needed procurements, including the acquisition
of the Coast Guard's eighth National Security Cutter and badly needed
security upgrades at the White House complex to prevent fence jumper
intrusions.
The refusal of the Republican leadership to bring a clean Homeland
Security appropriations bill for a vote delays the hiring of Secret
Service personnel and the issuing of terrorism preparedness and
response grants for State and local governments. This jeopardizes our
first responders and other public safety personnel from being fully
prepared when responding to a terrorist attack or to a natural
disaster.
While I do not question the prioritization of my colleagues in
protecting our country, I do worry that some fail to appreciate fully
the negative impact of inappropriately using the 2015 DHS
appropriations bill as leverage to reverse the President's executive
actions on immigration policy. If my Republican colleagues believe the
President has overreached, then the Constitution provides them a path
of action through the authorizing committees rather than through an
appropriations bill.
Mr. Speaker, when we are increasingly faced with the possibility of
terrorist threats, I urge the Republican leadership to let this House
vote on the clean, bipartisan, bicameral 2015 Homeland Security
appropriations bill, which was negotiated in good faith last November.
This bill will pass the House and the Senate, and it will be signed by
the President, enabling our Department of Homeland Security to continue
to protect our country from harm. To do otherwise is a failure in our
most basic responsibility as Members of Congress.
____________________