[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 42 (Thursday, March 5, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S869-S871]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HOUSING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY ACT
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Unanimous Consent Requests
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, it has been nearly 6 weeks--6 weeks--
since Alex Pretti was killed by masked Federal agents in broad
daylight. It has been over 9 weeks since Renee Good was killed. And day
after day, week after week, we have seen Americans brutalized by an
out-of-control Department of Homeland Security--American citizens
detained without cause, children ripped away from their families--as
this administration treats them like political pawns in their sick
games. We have seen peaceful protesters have their windows broken in by
untrained and unidentifiable agents. And we have seen more people get
hurt and even die because of how ICE and Border Patrol have been
conducting themselves.
In this entire time, Democrats have been pushing for serious reform
to rein in these Agencies. For months, I have been at the table in good
faith, pushing to secure basic accountability measures for ICE and
Border Patrol. We are talking about standards local police already
follow across the country.
But even before Alex Pretti was shot and killed, Republicans and this
White House, in particular, were telling us no on many basic reforms
that would rein in ICE and CBP.
We pushed for commonsense steps to make sure poorly trained agents
and officers do not trample the basic rights of American citizens and
kill them for no reason. And we pushed for steps to prevent these rogue
Agencies from hiding the facts from the public and sweeping everything
under the rug.
But my colleagues across the aisle came back to us and said: Sorry,
we cannot agree to those.
Sometimes, my Republican colleagues were willing to take one modest
step or another, which I appreciate, only to have to come back and say
the White House was not willing to do that, and they had to hold the
line. Or worse, they backtracked on measures we agreed to because of
fears of what the White House would think.
And now, here we find ourselves, nearly 6 weeks after Alex Pretti's
brutal killing, and Republicans so far have continued to refuse to join
us to pass any commonsense reforms to prevent more Americans from being
hurt or even killed by masked Federal agents.
As I have said many times, we are not asking for the Moon. We are
asking for basic steps to protect Americans' constitutional rights and
their safety.
There is nothing new or controversial about body cameras or requiring
identification be displayed. There is nothing extreme about insisting
that ICE and Border Patrol follow the same standards as everyone else
when it comes to use of force or needing a warrant before smashing in
someone's door and dragging them away. These are common sense, and they
are overwhelmingly popular.
This is what the American people are demanding. But Republicans have
decided they would rather shut down DHS than work with us to rein in
these rogue Agencies. Republicans know full well that Democrats do want
to ensure that TSA and CISA and FEMA and other important Agencies are
funded.
What Democrats have a problem with is funding rogue Agencies that are
actively violating court orders and our civil rights and putting
Americans' safety at risk. We cannot--we will not--cut a blank check
for funding without reforms for ICE and Border Patrol.
But if Republicans keep dragging their feet on those basic reforms we
are asking for to protect people from those rogue Federal Agencies,
then we should at least make sure that TSA agents get paid and FEMA is
fully funded while those negotiations continue.
[[Page S870]]
TSA agents should not go without pay because Republicans refuse to
agree to commonsense reforms instead of cutting another blank check for
Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller to terrorize Americans.
So, yes, let's pay our Coast Guard and our TSA. Let's replenish the
Disaster Relief Fund and support other work that we overwhelmingly all
agree on. I have a bill that I will offer in a moment that will do
that. We can pass it right now, while pressing ahead with negotiations
on ICE and Border Patrol to get basic reforms and accountability the
American people want.
All week, I have heard my colleagues on the other side of the aisle
loudly say funding for DHS could not be more important in this moment.
They have argued the instability this President has unleashed with his
reckless war in Iran means Democrats must now fund DHS, including ICE,
with no reforms at all.
Now, there are some obvious problems with that argument, like the
bizarre notion that because Trump started a reckless war with Iran,
Democrats now must rush and cut a blank check; or the fact that the
biggest threat to cyber and counterterrorism work at DHS seems to be
Kristi Noem, who, by the way, over the last year, has gutted CISA and
has taken folks off the terrorism beat to deport farmworkers with no
criminal history.
But put all that aside. I completely agree we should fund our cyber
defense Agencies and FEMA and TSA.
So I hope my Republican colleagues, who also believe--I know they
do--that these Agencies are important and have been making the case
they do need funding, will join with me today to get this bill passed
while talks on ICE and Border Patrol and much needed reform and
accountability measures can continue.
With that, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the
immediate consideration of my bill, which is at the desk; that the bill
be considered read three times and passed; and that the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Alabama.
Mrs. BRITT. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I would
like a moment to respond to my colleague from Washington.
Democrats claim they are no longer for open borders. Yet they are now
proposing to actually defund border security. Their proposal completely
defunds Customs and Border Protection, including Border Patrol.
Year over year, fentanyl deaths are down 24 percent. When you take
overdoses of drug and fentanyl, that is down 24 percent because of the
good work of CBP. But you want to defund that. Why?
During the Biden administration, we had a record high of overdoses.
Do you know what the American people said?
They said: No more, no more. We are sick of the failed Biden border
policies. We expect the people who are elected to represent us to
actually do that.
And there are moms and dads that are sitting around their kitchen
table with a child who would not be here but for the courageous acts of
CBP. But Democrats, today, say they want to defund them.
Additionally, Democrats claim they are no longer the party of
``defund the police.'' Yet, today, they actually came here and asked to
defund our law enforcement officers--our law enforcement officers that
do a multitude of things. They are asking to defund HSI today.
I heard the minority leader give a few remarks earlier. I was glad to
see him down here. And he talked about the need to protect children. I
wish that the other side of the aisle had that level of conviction over
the last 4 years of the Biden administration, when we lost over 500,000
kids to Joe Biden's failed border policies, on which this side of the
aisle said: Nothing can be done with it unless we pass a law. There are
no reforms that can stop this flow further. There are no reforms.
They actually did away with a DNA policy to make sure those kids went
to someone that they were related to. Do you know what you are
defunding? You are defunding an Agency that found 145 of those lost
children.
I agree with my colleague from Washington that children should
matter. When you think about what else HSI does, they go find child
predators. HSI is responsible for capturing these men, and, today, you
all decided that is not worth funding. We are no longer going to go
after people who are child pornographers, child predators, sex
traffickers, drug traffickers. The worst of the worst is who HSI has
found and gotten rid of, but, today, the Democrats came and said: We
are not going to fund it.
You are defunding ERO personnel, who removed these trained national
cartel members and violent criminals, and you are defunding CBP
personnel.
Look, it is very clear, through their actions today, that they are
still the party of open borders. They are still the party of ``defund
the police''--now, actually, more than ever. You can't get more radical
than that. That was actually rejected at the ballot box last November.
But we know this couldn't come at a more dangerous time. We know,
when we saw what happened in Austin, that there was an increased level
of threat to our interior. We know that, in December 2025, the Director
of the National Counterterrorism Center testified that the United
States had admitted over 18,000 known or suspected terrorists as part
of Biden's parole program.
When you are looking at this--when you are looking at the CBP and the
fact that, in fiscal year 2025, they got 4,800 known terrorists or
terrorist suspects at the border and, in fiscal year 2026, 3,950, we
have work to do.
We want to work with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
We want to find a pathway forward, but it takes actually having
conversations and working together to be able to do that. This is
completely moving us in the wrong direction. It would endanger the
lives of our families and, ultimately, the safety of our Nation.
Therefore, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, unfortunately, what has become very clear
is that Republicans would rather keep the entire DHS shut down than
work with Democrats to prevent more Americans from being killed by
masked agents.
My Democratic colleagues and I have been very, very clear on the
reforms we need. It is not secret, and we have been pushing for them
for weeks on end, in good faith, to finalize a DHS bill that funds TSA
and FEMA while reining in ICE and the CBP. But Republicans and the
White House have now, for months, refused to agree to those basic
reforms that we need to make to keep Americans safe. They have said
again and again that we need to fund FEMA and TSA and other key
Agencies. Well, I just tried to pass a bill that would make sure that
those Agencies are funded while talks on reforms and accountability
measures for ICE and Border Patrol continue. So guess what. They
blocked that too.
Now, this is not complicated. Democrats want to get TSA officers paid
and fund disaster relief, but we will not vote to help Republicans
spend one more dime letting Stephen Miller terrorize our cities, and we
will not vote to cut a blank check so that ICE can barge into
Americans' homes without a warrant. We will not vote to allow ICE
agents to continue wearing masks as they terrorize our communities and
evade accountability. We need accountability for ICE and for Border
Patrol.
It is not just Democrats' saying that. The American people
overwhelmingly agree that Trump's and Noem's lawless rampage has got to
come to an end. People feel that way because we have all seen what has
happened. It is in plain sight. We have all seen the videos of people
who are tackled and pepper-sprayed in the face and seen the protesters
who are gassed for no reason. We have seen the horrific shootings of
Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and we have seen Kristi Noem, ICE, and the
Border Patrol blatantly lie and slander people like Renee and Alex and
Marimar Martinez by falsely calling them domestic terrorists.
What we have not yet seen is accountability. That is what has got to
end. No number of Republican revotes on the same failed bill is going
to change that and while our bill to fund the Coast Guard and TSA and
FEMA, as negotiations continue, was just objected to. So I am ready at
any time to pass that. It is the right thing to do.
Instead of blocking bills to pay TSA agents or wasting time with
dead-on-
[[Page S871]]
arrival legislation, I hope that Republicans will listen to what we are
asking for and listen to what their constituents are asking for. We
need to see ICE have accountability. Work with us to pass those reforms
in order to fund that full Agency.
With that, I want my colleagues to know I will continue to work to
get that done.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.
Mrs. BRITT. Mr. President, we would love to listen. That would be
great because we passed a continuing resolution for 2 weeks, and to my
knowledge, there were no conversations between elected Democrats and
elected Republicans to try and find a pathway forward. Then, in the
last 2 weeks, we have been asking to have those conversations, and we
have been asking to listen because we believe that this is important.
So I am calling on my Democratic colleagues to be a part of that, to be
a part of the solution. I certainly know that we want to.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the
immediate consideration of Calendar No. 156, H.R. 4553. I further ask
that the Britt substitute amendment at the desk be considered and
agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time
and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and
laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, in reserving the right to object, look,
I, too, am frustrated this body has not been able to reach an agreement
on the DHS funding bill. In particular, I am frustrated that my
colleagues across the aisle and in the White House are still refusing
to agree to work with us on commonsense measures to protect our
constituents from being shot and even killed by unidentifiable,
untrained ICE and Border Patrol agents.
Democrats have been very clear on this for weeks. We want to fund
FEMA and TSA, and we want to protect Americans from the violence at the
hands of rogue Federal Agencies. This is not complicated. We can and we
must do both.
I have always been very clear about what we cannot do, which is cut
another blank check for Kristi Noem to terrorize our communities.
Unfortunately, that is what the bill from the junior Senator from
Alabama would do. It would kick the can down the road and give more
money to ICE and Border Patrol to trample American rights. That is not
an acceptable outcome.
If Republicans won't agree to the commonsense measures we have been
pushing for weeks--measures that police departments across America
already adhere to--then I am absolutely willing and ready to fund the
rest of DHS while talks on ICE and CBP continue. In fact, that is what
the bill did that I just offered.
I object to this measure, and I really hope our Republican colleagues
will join me in supporting the bill I called up a few moments ago to
fund the TSA and FEMA and CISA while those talks continue. So I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
The majority leader.
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