Press Releases

WASHINGTON — Today, Speaker Johnson released the following statement on the Democrat Department of Homeland Security shutdown:

“Regarding the Democrat DHS shutdown, the time has come to make a few things clear:

“It is inexcusable that Democrats continue to shut down the American government over and over, hurting American citizens and jeopardizing the security of our homeland — on purpose — to protect illegal aliens.

“In the fall, Democrats shut down the government to try to give American taxpayer funded health care benefits to illegal aliens.

“Now, they have shut down the government again for the expressed purpose of making sure known criminal illegal aliens including child molesters and murderers can continue living in American neighborhoods. These are truly the worst of the worst.

“House Republicans already did our job and passed the bicameral, bipartisan-negotiated bill providing full-year funding to the Department of Homeland Security, which also includes crucial agencies like TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, Secret Service, and many others.

“The insanity of the Democrat DHS shutdown comes at the expense of our own American citizens who pay taxes and demand and deserve safe and efficient travel at our airports, assistance when natural disasters occur, and secured borders for safe communities.

“And yet, thanks to the ongoing Democrat DHS shutdown, FEMA operations are disrupted following a historic season of winter storms on the East Coast, TSA agents are working another week without pay, the Secret Service is going unfunded while another armed attempt was made recently on President Trump’s life, and our nation witnessed an act of terrorism in Texas over the weekend.

“Perhaps most crucially of all, the military action in Iran makes it all the more urgent and crucial to have a fully staffed, fully funded Department of Homeland Security across all departments.

“Democrats withholding funding for the department in the midst of rapidly mounting crises is the definition of irresponsibility.

“Republicans in the House and Senate continue to demonstrate over and over that our Number One priority is to serve and protect the American people. And we will do so again this week, when we bring the House-passed full-year DHS funding bill to the floor of the House again for a vote.

“If the Democrat Party ever wants to begin correcting the impression that they prioritize the welfare of illegal aliens over the welfare of the American people, this will be the week to start.”