WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D- NY) is calling on the Speaker to bring the House back to DC, so Congress can finish funding for DHS. Congress is on a two-week break while the Department remains shutdown.
Some members have been outspoken about leaving Capitol Hill during this time. Over the weekend, Jeffries said members should return to DC to vote on ending the partial shutdown.
“We can reopen this government today if you bring to the House floor a bipartisan Senate-passed bill today,” Jeffries said on the floor in March ahead of the recess.
Before the break, the Senate sent a funding measure to the House that would fund DHS except for Border Patrol and ICE. The House rejected the bill and passed their own separate legislation that would fund DHS through mid-May.
Late last week, the Speaker and Senate Majority Leader announced plans for a two-part track to fund DHS. That plan would include passing the Senate measure and then separately using the procedural tool known as reconciliation to fund Border Patrol and ICE. Republicans would not need Democratic support for it to pass.
“They want to defund this agency and make our country vulnerable, make Americans less safe,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R- LA) ahead of the recess. “I’m not going to have anything to do with that, Mr. Speaker. I want to fund the whole Department.”
Before and during the recess, members blame the other side for the shutdown showdown.
“House Republicans running around this town acting like nothing more than a reckless rubber stamp to Donald Trump’s extreme agenda, and that’s what’s happening right now because what House Republicans want to do is to continue to fund Donald Trump’s violent extreme mass deportation machine that has resulted in the death of at least 3 American citizens,” said Jeffries ahead of the two-week recess.
