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Funding TSA, but Keeping ICE Spending Constant
Wisconsin’s Republican U.S. Senator is defending the Senate compromise on the Department of Homeland Security that failed over the weekend on Capitol Hill.
Johnson was on with Maria Bartaroma on Fox News over the weekend. He said the agreement in the Senate, which would pay TSA agents but would not include any new money for ICE, is the first and best deal they’ve gotten from Democrats since the partial government shutdown started over a month ago.
“Democrats weren’t even negotiating for the first 30-plus days of this most recent shutdown,” Johnson explained. “This was the only thing we could get the Democrats to agree to.”
Johnson said the goal is to get TSA, the Coast Guard, and the other pieces of the Department of Homeland Security funded, and then use the reconciliation process to fully fund DHS until 2029. But he said it’s tough because of Democratic political gamesmanship.
“We have to understand that it is Democrats,” Johnson said. “It’s not Republicans who are refusing to fund DHS. It’s Democrats.”
Republicans in the House over the weekend rejected the Senate compromise plan. Leaders there said it cut thousands of DHS jobs and wasn’t enough to secure the border or protect the country.
Johnson said protecting the nation cannot get lost in this political showdown.
“Take a look at [the Democrats’] record: Opening-up our border, flooding the country with sex traffickers, human traffickers, potential terrorists, Iranian sleeper cells. We need to fund the agencies.”
Johnson said Democrats on Capitol Hill, at this point, are being “obnoxious” and “obstructionist.”
However, Wisconsin’s Democratic U.S. Senator, Tammy Baldwin, took to X on Friday to say Republicans are the problem.
“This is what I’ve been fighting for: fund TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard while giving Republicans time to meet Americans’ demands for basic reforms to ICE and Border Patrol,” Baldwin wrote. “It’s time to rein in the chaos and lawlessness of ICE.
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