McCaskill Questions Republican Leaders: "Why Not Fund Homeland Security with Clean Bill, then Finally Debate Immigration Reform?'

Press Release

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, a senior member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, today questioned why Republican leaders in Congress are refusing to immediately pass a clean funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security--free of controversial policy riders--and then move on to debating a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would supersede recent executive actions.

"Republican leaders now fully control Congress--and amid terrorist threats to our homeland, there's a simple question they need to answer," said McCaskill, who is also a senior member of the Armed Services Committee. "Why don't they just fund our Homeland Security with a clean bill, free of these veto-bait policy riders, and then finally set up a debate on a comprehensive immigration reform bill to supersede the President's executive actions?

"A good place to start would be the bill that passed the Senate two years ago with a big bipartisan vote that would have fixed our broken immigration system, but which U.S. House leaders refused to ever bring up for a vote," McCaskill added.

The funding bill approved by the U.S. House contains controversial immigration policy riders that stakeholders agree stand no chance of reaching the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the Senate and which are under veto threat from President Obama, opening up the Homeland Security Department to a potential shutdown.

More than 2,000 Missourians face furloughs or work without pay with just days until the Department of Homeland Security shuts down. Missouri is home to 2,266 Homeland Security military and civilian employees and contractors, including TSA, FEMA, Customs and Border Protection, and Secret Service agents--who face furloughs or work without pay in the event of a shutdown. Earlier this month, McCaskill took to the Senate floor and called out the continued effort of Republican leaders to play politics with national security as the Homeland Security funding deadline looms, and recently joined 44 of her Senate colleagues in a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell calling for a clean funding bill for the remainder of the fiscal year, in order to avoid a shutdown.

Source