Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASE. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this as a member of the Appropriations Committee, as well as of our Subcommittees on Defense and Homeland Security.

Madam Speaker, I join the vast majority of Americans in condemning the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. There is brutality and death in our streets, so-called leaders trashing victims and their grieving families, warrantless searches, and fear in our own citizens. I had a State senator in my own district tell me this last week that she was fearful of going out to talk to her constituents in her district without her passport.

This is unacceptable. This is un-American, and ICE must be reformed. Until it is, neither it, nor its parent entity, the Department of Homeland Security, should be fully funded.

The best way for us to reform ICE is to keep laser focused on ICE reform, and this measure does exactly that. It gives this administration and my majority colleagues 10 days to work with us all to do the right thing. Unless the right thing is done, we should not fund the Department of Homeland Security

This measure also funds 70 percent of our Federal Government, rather than shut it down again. I will focus on just a few areas where this is critical. Let's start with defense, half of our total budget.

It is a time when it is critical to our national security that our Defense Department be fully operating, be fully focused, be nimble, be quick, and have the ability to adjust. Yet, we have kept our Defense Department essentially crippled for 16 months now since the last time that we funded it in regular order and gave it direction through funding and oversight. That was fiscal year 2024.

They have been operating on a continuing resolution for 16 months now, and that cripples national security. That is a national security risk. No new programs are possible, and procurement is excessively expensive because it cannot function over multiple years without effective system-wide modernization. Any military leader will say that the worst thing going for it right now, at a time when it has to adjust to the PRC and Russia across a variety of focuses, is that it now needs full flexibility.

In Financial Services and General Government, this bill funds the Federal courts. Can we envision a time in our history when it was not more important that the Federal courts be fully staffed and funded? I don't think so.

This bill funds Social Security. It enables Social Security to continue to function for the millions of Americans who depend on it at a time when Social Security is being crippled by staff cuts.

In Foreign Affairs, this bill provides continued security assistance to our friends and allies throughout the world. It maintains some effective projection of presence out there into the world. It funds the Countering PRC Influence Fund that is so important to us.

In transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, it funds the FAA so that our air transportation system can continue to function.

For Federal workers overall, who have borne the brunt of our failure to appropriate in regular order, it will help millions throughout our country by assuring them that they can continue without great doubt.

We must pass this measure now.

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Mr. CASE. Madam Speaker, it must not be, need not be, and will not be at the expense of ICE reform.

We sacrifice none of that mandate to reform ICE by passing this bill today.

Finally, I say to our Department of Homeland Security employees out there who have served us so well through so much difficulty, to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, Transportation Security Administration, they do critical work for us, and we apologize to them that we must create uncertainty to them for the foreseeable future, but we ask them to understand that reforming ICE is critical not just to those who are suffering at the hands of ICE, but it is critical to our country.

They will be paid. They will be paid because this continues their pay. But because of the uncertainty that they must live with until we get this resolved, we appreciate their cooperation.

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