LEADER JEFFRIES: "REPUBLICANS WOULD RATHER INCONVENIENCE YOU TO JAM THEIR EXTREME RIGHT-WING IDEOLOGY DOWN THE THROATS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE"
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar held a joint press conference to demand that Speaker Johnson end the painful DHS shutdown and bring the Senate-passed funding bill to the House Floor for an up-or-down vote.
LEADER JEFFRIES: This is day 42 of the Trump Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans have decided for weeks now to force TSA agents to work without pay, inconvenience millions of Americans and create chaos at airports all across the country. This could end and should end today. There is a bipartisan bill that has been sent over from the Senate that would reopen the non-controversial parts of the Department of Homeland Security, make sure TSA agents are paid and end the chaos at airports throughout the nation. The bipartisan bill sent over by the Senate has been supported by every single Democrat and every single Republican as it made its way over to the House of Representatives.
House Democrats are prepared to support the bill to end the Trump-Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, make sure TSA agents are paid, stand up for FEMA and for the Coast Guard and for our cybersecurity professionals and stop inconveniencing Americans, which is being intentionally done by Donald Trump and House Republican extremists. Why is this happening? Many Americans are asking. Because House Republicans have decided that they would rather inconvenience you, create chaos for you and for your families, so that they can continue to jam their extreme right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people. So they can continue to spend billions of dollars for ICE to brutalize and kill American citizens, as we've seen horrifically in the case of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
Our views on immigration enforcement are the views of the American people. Immigration enforcement should focus on violent felons who are in this country illegally, not target law-abiding immigrant families or brutalize and, in some cases, kill American citizens. Your taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for you and for your family, and that's what Democrats are going to continue to fight to accomplish. The only thing standing right now between the chaos that is taking place at airports all across the country and the American people, and making sure you are no longer inconvenienced, are House Republicans. That's the only thing standing right now, as we approach Easter and Passover, with chaos breaking out all over the country, TSA agents being forced to work without pay week after week after week. And now we have this bipartisan bill sent over by the Senate that House Democrats are prepared to support. If that bill is brought to the Floor today, it will pass, and the Trump-Republican DHS shutdown will be over. But unfortunately, MAGA extremists in the House of Representatives continue to inflict pain on the American people.
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Our message to Mike Johnson and House Republicans is clear. Paying TSA agents, reopening the Department of Homeland Security, ending the chaos and stopping the inconvenience for millions of Americans all across the country is no joking matter. It is serious. You should take your responsibility seriously. Bring this bipartisan bill to the Floor today so we can end the nonsense, end the chaos and actually start doing the type of things that the American people want us to focus on, which is making their life more affordable in an environment where Donald Trump and Republicans have made life more expensive in the United States of America.
Full event can be watched here.