[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 1212]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       IN OPPOSITION TO THE FY15 DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY 
                           APPROPRIATIONS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, January 26, 2015

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 240, 
the FY2015 Homeland Security Appropriations bill, which included the 
adoption of five anti-immigrant amendments. By including these policy 
riders, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have decided to 
hold hostage and disrupt funding for the Department of Homeland 
Security (DHS). Failure to promptly fund the Department of Homeland 
Security puts our country at risk.
  At the end of last year, House and Senate Appropriators came to a 
compromise agreement on funding for the Department of Homeland Security 
at a level of $39.67 billion, $1.5 billion above the President's 
request. This agreement contained funding for many important programs 
vital to our national security interests. Unfortunately, Speaker 
Boehner decided to abandon that agreement and instead have a 
negotiation between the far right and the far, far right.
  In particular, I strongly oppose the inclusion of an amendment 
offered by Congressman Aderholt that would deny the use of any funds or 
fees for the administration to implement the President's Executive 
Action on immigration that was issued last November. As many legal 
experts have determined, there is clear precedent for this action, 
which seeks to further secure our border and prioritize deporting 
felons over families. In fact, over the last 50 years, every President 
has used executive authority to take limited action on immigration, 
including six Republican Presidents.
  I was also very disappointed that an amendment offered by 
Congresswoman Blackburn was adopted in final passage of this bill. This 
amendment would prevent Dreamers in the Deferred Action for Childhood 
Arrivals program (DACA) from renewing the two-year Deferred Action they 
have already received. This would effectively end the DACA program--
which has already provided temporary protection for 700,000 individuals 
who were brought to the United States as children--and would subject 
hundreds of thousands of Dreamers to deportation.
  If our Republican colleagues want to address immigration issues, they 
should start by taking up legislation to fix our broken immigration 
system. Over 18 months ago, the Senate passed a comprehensive 
immigration reform bill with bipartisan support. House Republicans 
allowed that bill to die in the House without allowing it to come to a 
vote. Republicans should come up with a proposal to reform our broken 
immigration system. They should not threaten to defund the Department 
of Homeland Security because of their inaction.
  It is especially unfortunate that these anti-immigrant amendments 
were adopted because the bill that had previously been agreed to 
contained funding for many critical programs. Specifically, I 
appreciate the robust funding in the bill provided for the SAFER and 
AFG fire grant programs which have helped pay for emergency vehicles 
and increased staffing needs at a time when the numbers of volunteer 
fire fighters across the country has been declining. Furthermore, in 
light of this week's cyberattack on the U.S. Central Command's Twitter 
account, I am encouraged by the bill's funding for cyber security 
programs. I am also pleased to see the increased funding provided for 
the Secret Service, which has experienced well reported challenges last 
year.
  Mr. Speaker, now is not the time to play politics with our national 
security. I urge my colleagues to vote no on this bill.

                          ____________________