Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026
Floor Speech
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Mr. AMODEI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and my colleague, the ranking member on the other side, for their work.
Mr. Speaker, as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Homeland Security, obviously, I rise today in strong support of the fiscal year 2026 Homeland Security appropriations bill.
Later today, we will vote on this bill for a second time in 2 months. It shouldn't be necessary. The committee negotiated a full-year bill on a bicameral, bipartisan basis.
Our bill includes reforms like funding for body-worn cameras, negotiated amongst both sides in both Houses, and de-escalation training, something else that we have heard about. Democrats continue to insist on proposals which would prevent the enforcement of immigration law.
It is disappointing that we must cajole our colleagues to support this bipartisan bill once again, but here we are. The Department of Homeland Security has now been shut down for more than 3 weeks, with no apparent end in sight.
Let us just for a second really talk about why we are here. One of the biggest successes of the present administration is what they have done on the border and what they have done in terms of ending unlimited immigration from the previous administration and how they are trying to clean that up. That is a phenomenal sore spot amongst some of my colleagues. You know what, why are we here with this? Why are we ignoring TSA and all this stuff you are going to hear throughout this? We have got Secret Service. We have got FEMA. We have got all of these things going on. We have got the Coast Guard. Why are we ignoring all of those? Because the thing that really upsets them is the success on the number one issue that this administration ran on, which was cleaning up the border.
Now, when you have got some operations in the Twin Cities that are under investigation, it is like here we go. We can fixate on this, or try and take the plumb so far of this administration's accomplishments--and there are many. So here we are, until we get to a point where we can move on to something else and forget, the wall is still being built; there is plenty of money for operations with ICE, and all of those things, but we are doing political stuff. I get it. I understand it. I just don't understand how that gets to the top of the rail when there have been reforms. It has been quiet up in the Twin Cities for a while now. There have been pivots made.
While utility bills, mortgages, car payments, and grocery bills don't stop coming because the Senate has decided to hold this bill hostage, we sit here and struggle through and hope that people can struggle through in all the other homeland areas that are on hold.
What I would tell you is this: Vote ``yes,'' end the shutdown.
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