Reed Urges House Republicans to Pass Bipartisan Senate-Backed DHS Funding Bill

WASHINGTON, DC - In an effort to safeguard Americans and strengthen homeland security, all one hundred members of the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate unanimously approved a compromise agreement to fund U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) operations and provide pay for key personnel, including Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents, U.S. Coast Guard members, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) employees, Secret Service agents, and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff. The bill omits new money for immigration enforcement and deportation operations because Republicans refused to accept commonsense reforms and basic accountability standards to ensure Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) adherence to similar practices and guardrails required of other law enforcement agencies that issue officers a badge, gun, and authority to use lethal force.

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved the DHS funding bill on Friday, but Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are blocking consideration of the bipartisan agreement in the lower chamber. Instead, House Republicans are pushing for a partisan bill that was already declared 'dead on arrival' in the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, the Republican Senate Majority Leader has already adjourned the Senate for a two-week recess.

Today, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) stated:

"It is not easy to get 100 U.S. Senators in full agreement. But every U.S. Senator from every single state agreed on the need to put the safety and security of the American people first. After extensive negotiations, we passed an overdue, bipartisan bill to help secure the nation.

"Pressing national security challenges require serious, stable leadership. The Senate unanimously agreed to pass a tough but fair agreement to get DHS working again. Instead of debate and consideration in the House, Republicans opted to rush to their polarized, self-segregated social media echo chambers to try to belittle a bipartisan bill that prioritizes the safety and security of the American people.

"The good news is Speaker Johnson still has time to do the right thing and bring the Senate-passed bill to the floor. The House can reopen DHS any time the Speaker wants to. So far, he has chosen to prolong the shutdown and try to score political points. But the American people are smart. They understand that 100 percent of the U.S. Senate agreed to this deal. So the phony claim that 'Democrats are obstructionist' is undermined by the undeniable fact that Republicans control the Senate and unanimously approved this DHS deal.

"President Trump and Congressional Republicans have already bragged about hollowing out several DHS agencies. They literally sought to eliminate FEMA. They undermined the Cyber Infrastructure Security Agency, which defends our country against cyber threats. CISA is down one-third of its personnel. The head of the agency was unfairly removed and its budget was slashed. Why? Was CISA ineffective? Was it not doing its job? Were cyber attacks getting through? No. President Trump was upset because CISA countered his 'Big Lie' that U.S. elections were rigged. President Trump retaliated by dismantling CISA and rolling back federal support for election security.

"Americans deserve a federal government that works for them, but the Republican-controlled government is serving special interests instead of the national interest. And now, in the midst of Trump's war on Iran, and at a time of heightened security threats and an economic Trump-slump, House Republicans are refusing to pay frontline DHS employees rather than allow an up or down vote.

"Washington is under complete Republican control and Speaker Johnson and House Republicans are failing to do the most basic part of their job. They should allow a vote on the unanimously-passed bipartisan Senate bill that prioritizes defending our homeland and keeps critical services running for taxpayers. Republicans can try to spin this however they want, but the Senate did its part, and unanimously approved the agreement.

"Every day Republicans refuse to reopen DHS is another reminder that Republican control of Washington is failing the American people and causing unnecessary financial strain for working families."

Most DHS employees such as TSA officers missed their first full paycheck earlier this month and could soon miss another one if Congressional Republicans refuse to act. Republicans have repeatedly pointed out that ICE and CBP are 'shutdown-proof' because Republicans used a process known as "reconciliation" to provide immigration-related budget authority on top of the discretionary budget. Under the so-called 'One Big Beautiful Budget Act' (OBBBA) law, ICE received roughly $75 billion in new budget authority - about seven times ICE's typical annual appropriation of $10 billion. These reconciliation funds remain available to the Trump Administration whether Congress passes appropriations bills or not. Republicans also provided these ICE funds to the Trump Administration with less oversight than normal appropriations.

Even conservative think tanks like the Cato Institute have sounded the alarm, noting: "There is virtually no comprehensive public accounting of how the more than $190 billion in OBBBA funds allocated to DHS have been or will be spent. That should be extraordinarily concerning, given the raw size of the cash infusion (ICE received 7 times its annual budget) and reports about unlawful behavior, poor oversight, and misuse of taxpayer resources."

Senator Reed concluded: "House Republicans claim Senate Republicans agreed to a deal that doesn't adequately fund ICE. But Republicans already gave this Administration way more ICE funding than it could responsibly spend, and abdicated oversight. Now, the same House Republicans claiming ICE needs more money can't even tell taxpayers exactly how ICE is spending what it was already allocated through reconciliation. We do know ICE has apportioned nearly $25 billion already just for detention facilities - that is more than twice ICE's entire budget from the previous year and roughly three times the annual spending of the entire Federal Bureau of Prisons. But we don't know the details of how that money is being spent. Democrats support strong border security and real oversight that prevents abuse and misuse of taxpayer resources. We believe transparency is essential to good government. It's not enough for House Republicans to feign outrage when the public learns after the fact that their hard-earned tax dollars are wasted by Trump officials on things like luxury jets and overpriced vanity commercials that line the pockets of Trump insiders. These same Republicans unwisely ceded their oversight and authority to Donald Trump when they used a party-line vote to produce an unprecedented ICE slush fund. They made the Trump Administration less accountable and made themselves less effective. This DHS shutdown is 100 percent on them. House Republicans have no one to blame but themselves."

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