[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 1335]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         FISCAL YEAR 2015 HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS BILL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BETTY McCOLLUM

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 27, 2015

  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.

                          ____________________