DeLauro Opposes GOP’s Dangerous Games with National Security
WASHINGTON, DC— Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) today announced her opposition to the Department of Homeland Security funding bill before the House of Representatives. The bill plays politics with our nation’s security in order to tie the President’s hands on immigration. She delivered the following remarks on the House floor:
“With this bill the Majority plays a dangerous game with our national security. We all know why they are doing this. They want to tie the President’s hands on immigration, because they do not agree with him there. By acting in this way, the Majority has torn up what should be a fundamental rule of American politics: that we do not play politics with the security of our nation. The fact that the Majority chooses to gamble with Homeland Security, of all budgets, is troubling to say the least. At a time when we face a higher terrorist threat, these tactics are potentially deadly.
“Let us recall that the Department of Homeland Security was born out of the searing attacks on this nation on September 11th, 2001. We created it to protect our country against further atrocities. Three thousand people died. We have seen what our enemies our capable of. We saw it in the Boston Marathon bombing. We saw it again over the past week in a shocking series of terrorist murders in Paris. Funding for national security programs should be sacrosanct. Republicans and Democrats could so easily have come together to pass a full-year funding bill. Instead, the Majority chooses tactics that put the security of American families at risk. They have allowed three non-germane amendments to this bill that seek only to make life harder for immigrant families.
“I remember 2007, when Chairman Rogers, the Chair of the Appropriations Committee, said on the floor: ‘There is no more important chore that the Congress has… than to protect the country as best we can from its enemies and from natural disasters. That is what this bill is all about.’ Well, his party should take his advice now. These games are dangerous. They are disgraceful. They are wrong. I will vote against this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.
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