Rep. Panetta’s Statement on the Vote to Fund DHS

U.S. Representative Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) released the following statement on the House passage of a bill to fund Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Coast Guard, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA):

"Today, the House of Representatives finally voted to fund TSA, Coast Guard, CISA, and FEMA. Although I'm pleased that Congress passed this legislation to fund those critical agencies under DHS, I'm deeply disappointed that it took so long for Speaker Mike Johnson to bring this bill to the House floor for a vote. This bipartisan bill passed the Senate unanimously and was sent to the House over a month ago. Yet, Speaker Johnson refused to allow Congress to vote on the bill to fund those agencies and properly pay those workers as a way to get more funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) without implementing any meaningful reforms to those troubled agencies.

"The purely partisan One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law last summer injected over $75 billion into ICE and $65 billion into CBP. Since that time, and based on this Administration's overreaching mass deportation policy driven by Stephen Miller, we've seen thousands of untrained ICE and CBP agents sent into communities across our country acting lawlessly, irresponsibly, and with impunity, creating chaos and even causing deaths to American citizens. I and many of my Congressional colleagues refused to provide any more funding through the annual appropriations process to either of those troubled agencies until there were meaningful and commonsensical reforms to ICE and CBP with their training, operating, and law enforcement protocols and procedures. However, instead of reaching across the aisle to work with us on a compromise for such reforms, Speaker Johnson and the Majority refused to deal with Democrats and held out for another purely partisan Republican reconciliation bill that will provide billions more in funding for ICE and CBP without any reforms being implemented.

"Instead of reaching across the aisle to find a solution, Speaker Johnson continues to go at it alone and give into this President's every demand. Now that TSA, Coast Guard, CISA, and FEMA are finally funded after an inexcusably long delay, it's well past time for the Speaker and his majority party to come to the table and get serious about reforming ICE and CBP. That way, the 119th Congress can finally stand up to this Administration and its dangerous mass deportation policies and live up to our constitutional obligations to protect the American people."

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