House Republicans Warn Failure to Pass Homeland Funding Could Shut TSA, FEMA; Urge Senate Action
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Summary
House Republican leaders argued that if Democrats force a shutdown of Department of Homeland Security funding, agencies such as TSA, FEMA and the Coast Guard could be affected; they said the House has passed a funding bill and urged the Senate to act.
House Republican leaders warned that failing to pass Department of Homeland Security funding could disrupt critical services including TSA and FEMA and said the House has already sent a homeland funding bill to the Senate.
An unidentified House Republican speaker at the briefing argued that Democratic resistance to the House homeland bill could lead to a shutdown of agencies that perform disaster and transportation-security functions, saying such a lapse would "wreak havoc" at airports and could interrupt disaster relief. The speaker said the House bill fully funds DHS and that offering a continuing resolution (CR) would amount to conceding on the House product.
At question time a reporter asked about media reports that federal judges are "increasingly frustrated" with DHS for not complying with court orders in ICE cases. Speaker Mike Johnson said he had not seen the report and "would doubt the veracity of that," defended DHS officers' difficult work and attributed many of the enforcement problems to sanctuary localities that limit cooperation with federal authorities.
Johnson also repeated a large estimate he attributed to some sources about unauthorized entries, saying "by some estimates, 20,000,000 illegal aliens came into the country" under the prior administration; he presented that figure in the context of prioritizing removal of what he described as "dangerous criminal aliens." He also said death threats against ICE officers "have increased 8000%"; those claims were stated by speakers and were not corroborated during the briefing.
Status and next steps: speakers said the House had passed a homeland funding bill that had been transmitted to the Senate and that House leaders planned coordination with Senate counterparts (Johnson said he would meet with Senate leader Thune). The briefing did not include Democratic officials or independent verification of the enforcement or court-compliance claims presented.
The briefing combined legislative messaging with claims about enforcement and court processes and did not present documentary evidence for figures cited during the event.