Bishop Votes To Reopen Government & Focus Congress on ICE, Public Safety

WASHINGTON - Yesterday, Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA-02) voted to support a combined funding bill which will provide full-year funding for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 to the U.S. Departments of Labor, Education, and other departments and agencies that support affordable housing and health care and advance medical research; workforce training as well as entrepreneurs and small business owners; and America's military families, national defense, diplomacy, and election security. The bill also froze funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

"This funding bill keeps the federal government open and working for the American people for the remainder of the fiscal year so that families have access to safe, reliable, and affordable utilities, health care, housing, roads, railways, and air travel as well as job and entrepreneurial opportunities. This bill will help ensure our military families are cared for, our national defense is strong, and our election security remains vigilant," said Congressman Bishop. "Hardnosed negotiations over the last year made sure this bill reasserted Congress's Constitutional powers of the purse, staved off destructive cuts, and eliminated poison pill amendments that would have hurt families."

Constructive and realistic discussions about the needs of the American people led to improvements in the funding bill that provide $432 billion to make housing more affordable, help families with $170 million for Child Care as well as Head Start, protect $415 million in life-saving medical research at the National Institutes of Health, and deliver a 3.8% pay raise for military personnel - all of which earned bipartisan support in the end.

"I am outraged that ICE is aggressively sweeping up American citizens and law-abiding immigrant families. We need guardrails to protect the public's safety and make sure immigration enforcement is just, fair, and humane. Rather than providing ICE with a blank check, this bill froze its funding," added Congressman Bishop. "The ten-day freeze of DHS funds will allow Congress to make a full court press on urgently needed changes to ICE without the distraction of funding the remainder of the government."

Last month, Congressman Bishop voted against an earlier version of the Homeland Security appropriations billwhich would have provided funding for DHS through the end of September. Americans have been horrified by ICE's behavior in the past months on streets in communities across the country and have demanded dramatic changes before DHS is funded for the full year. Commonsense protections include a mask ban, judicial warrant requirements, independent investigations when agents break the law, use of force protocols, mandatory body cameras, and an end to the storming of sensitive locations like houses of worship, schools, and hospitals.

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