By MATT PIKE
Senate Democrats continue to block the passage of a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security which would end an ongoing shutdown.
Currently, disputes over immigration officer policy is the point standing in the way of Democrats passing the bill, which is causing a pause in funding to agencies such as FEMA and the Transportation Security Administration
United States Republican Senator Roger Marshall says he wonders why his colleagues across the aisle won't put politics aside for the American people, and negotiate
"It took them 18 days to respond to President Trump’s last offer, 18 days, and only then when we went on the floor and started beating them about the head and shoulders so to speak saying look you need to respond to the President’s offer,” Marshall told reporters on a Zoom call. “And then at the Senate member level, this negotiation will be done through our appropriations committee, and the Democrat appropriators refused to sit down with Katie Britt (R- Ala.) and with Susan Collins (R-Maine) our Senators who would be in charge of this negotiation, so ever since DHS was shutdown, they refuse to sit down and talk.”
Marshall says it comes down to two key issues for Democrats, the masking of immigration officers and the use of administrative warrants. Marshall says he agrees that Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be better identified as ICE officers, however.
"My concern about asking these officers to be demasked, is that they’re children and their spouses' lives are being threatened back home, when people identify who they are, that they’re being doxxed as they use the term today and their children and their spouses lives are literally threatened,” Marshall explains. “So, I cannot ask the ICE officers to not wear a mask right now, that’s the reality of where we live in, but we did, nothing to give in we were planning on it anyways, full body cam cameras and a host of other requests the Democrats remade.”
Marshall says it's a shame what's happening in airports due to a lack of DHS funding, with the pause to agencies such as FEMA and the Transportation Security Administration.
Marshall says he's seen the shutdown's effects on TSA in Kansas airports
"I saw some airports that only half of the TSA officers showed up, at least 10% of them are staying at home on a regular basis, they have as I call it Schumeritis, that they have an illness because of Chuck Schumer’s unwillingness to fund TSA,” Marshall says. “And I really think that it puts American’s lives at stake when TSA folks are grumpy to say the least, that doesn’t mention the lack of funding for the Coast Guard, for FEMA as well.”
Senate Democrats have blocked the appropriates act five separate times, the most recent earlier this week. The ongoing shutdown has already surpassed the longest partial shutdown and is nearing the longest total shutdown of 43 days.
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