[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.

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