Chairman Thompson Statement on Bill to Fund DHS

Chairman Thompson Statement on Bill to Fund DHS

January 3, 2019 (WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, released the following statement on the Continuing Resolution to fund the Department of Homeland Security:

"Since the government shutdown on December 21, roughly 2.5 million holiday travelers each day have passed through airport security checkpoints staffed by Transportation Security officers who aren't getting paid. Almost half of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency workforce is furloughed, and the rest are working without pay. In all, 87 percent of the DHS workforce is reporting to work without pay and without knowing when their next paycheck will come."

"These are fellow Americans with bills to pay and families to support. The President should not be treating them like pawns in his pathetic pursuit to fulfill an absurd campaign promise."

"I have spent over a decade working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to identify and invest in effective ways to secure the border. That is why I find the President's bizarre obsession with wasting billions of dollars on building a wall so confounding."

"There is no evidence that a wall spanning the US-Mexico border will make America safer. The kinds of threats America faces today transcend physical borders. The President needs to learn that and adjust his priorities accordingly."

"I am disappointed that we are forced to spend the first days of the 116th Congress on the unfinished business of the last Congress instead of addressing the priorities the Americans elected us to tackle."

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Media contact: Adam Comis at (202) 225-9978