Hoyer: Let's Fund the Important Services that the American People Deserve
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) delivered remarks on the House Floor during debate on H.Res.1128 - Expressing the support of the House of Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security. Below are a video and transcript of his remarks.
Click here to watch a video of his remarks.
First Set of Remarks
"Mr. Speaker, the argument being made on the other side is not accurate. I will give them the benefit of the doubt, because perhaps they don't know [that] it's not accurate. We have over [210] people who are prepared to vote for all of the funding in DHS, other than one of the components – both of the components who recently have snatched people off the streets of America wearing hoods and no badges and putting them into unmarked cars. Yes, we're not for that. The gentleman said he was – that I asked the yield is, said he was a law enforcement officer. I was going to ask him whether he ever wore a mask during the course of his duties. Not a gas mask, a mask to keep him secret. I'm going to ask him whether he ever went into a home without a warrant, inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States. Yes, we want to defend the Constitution of the United States. And by the way, unless you missed it, when we passed the appropriation bills that have funded most of the government, we did so and we took DHS out and told you, ‘We're not for that.’ So, what you continue to do is to bring this Floor something we have told you we are not for. Mr. Speaker, if the Speaker of the House brought that bill to the Floor to fund all of DHS's components except those two agencies, it would pass overwhelmingly today, within this hour. I guarantee it, as a former Majority Leader, assuming that all of you say, ‘Oh, we want to fund TSA, we want to fund the Secret Service. We want to fund the Coast Guard,’ assuming that you would follow your rhetoric. It could be done like that. (snaps fingers) I say that as a [former] Majority Leader of this House for eight years, and I know of what I speak.
"Mr. Speaker, they talk about shutdowns. Under Ronald Reagan – and there were eight shutdowns – they lasted for an average, Mr. Speaker, of 1.3 days. Nine of those were weekend days. Why? Because Ronald Reagan and we Democrats who controlled the House were prepared to go to the table and make an agreement, and if we couldn't make an agreement, we nevertheless funded the government. This President has said numerous times, Mr. Speaker, ‘I'd welcome [shutting] down the government, all of it.’ All of it. So those of you who have come to the Floor and tried to, like Pontius Pilate, wash responsibility away and blame it on Democrats, because yes, there are things which we very strongly disagree [with], and that is the violation of the Constitution, the violation of statutes, and I would have asked my law enforcement friend the violation of norms followed by every police department in America.
"So, I am tired of hearing totally inaccurate information [about] some 'fraud' bill. That's not the word that was used, Mr. Speaker, but that was implied. The bill that we want is no fraud. The bill we want would fund TSA, Secret Service, Coast Guard, CISA, and all other agencies in DHS tomorrow. But what is the majority bringing to the Floor, Mr. Speaker? A bill that has failed three times. Why? Because we don't want warrantless searches, we don't want people's doors being broken down without probable cause, we don't want people apprehended by masked people. You know, I grew up in an era, when I was a young man, where there were a lot of people wearing masks, going around, assaulting people. We didn't call them police. Try to be honest with the American people. Mr. Speaker, we owe them that. Tell them, ‘Look, we are afraid that if we fund all of these components of which we all talk and support.’ If we do that, then we won't make as good a deal on DHS.' We won't keep them immune from following the Constitution. We won't keep them immune from following the laws of their state. We won't keep them immune from the norms that police follow. Don't come to this Floor and be dishonest and say we're shutting down the government. We're not. But we sure do want to raise the question and have a debate about whether we follow the Constitution in terms of law enforcement in this country. That's what I call – you know why you have warrants? Because King George could go into any house, any time, every time that he wanted to, and the Founding Fathers thought that was wrong.
"I see my Chairman is standing, so he may want to speak himself and not have me take all the time. But I would plead with my Republican friends, Mr. Speaker be honest. You're holding off that bill because you think tactically it will undermine what the ICE is doing; undermining that two, three, four, five people were killed by officers not following the law. Don't come here pretending that Democrats, somehow, are shutting [the government] down. By the way, when Joe Biden was President of the United States, you know how many shutdowns there were? Mr. Speaker, the answer to that is zero. Zero. Let's fund the important services that the American people deserve. Let's have the Speaker either put the bill on the Floor, have ten Republicans sign the discharge petition, we'll put it on the Floor and we'll pass it overwhelmingly, I predict. Mr. Chairman, I thank you for giving me some time to try to correct the record that is being, unfortunately, made poorly on this Floor."
Second Set of Remarks
"I thank the gentleman. The gentleman on the other side, Mr. Speaker, asked me to come back. I came back, he made a comment, I wanted to correct him. He would not yield for that purpose.
"86% of ICE is being funded. There are no silos being undermined, except by not funding all the other agencies that we are prepared to support. No silos. 85% of CBP is funded. You funded, Mr. Speaker, in reconciliation at three times, essentially, what the annual appropriation was for those two agencies. So, there ought not to be, again, this Pontius Pilate hand-wringing that, somehow, we've shut down those two agencies. We have not. You provided for that, Mr. Speaker, and they are funded.
"The question is, do you still want to use, as a political tactic, shutting down all the other agencies? And I yield back the balance of my time."