Former President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security secretary urged Congress to “stop the madness” and end the month-long government shutdown by funding the protection agency and paying its employees.
“I’m not taking sides. But I will say this: The primary job of our government and Congress is to allocate money. Keep the lights on. Keep the government working,” former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Sunday on WABC Radio 77’s “Cats Roundtable.”
“Congress and our president are failing to do this right now. We are in a time of heightened threat environment due to war with Iran.” [exists]”.
“We have to stop these funding battles” that have spiraled out of control, he said, causing long lines for travelers at airports due to no-shows from unpaid TSA employees.
“These meetings used to be annual. Now they happen several times a year [agency shutdowns]And I fear things will get worse unless someone steps in, with strong leadership, and says: “Stop the madness.” “You can’t punish workers, it’s not their fault,” Johnson, a Democrat, told host John Catsimatidis.
Senate Democrats led by Chuck Schumer of New York have rejected funding for the Department of Homeland Security amid a dispute with House Republicans and President Trump over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Calls to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement rose after two US citizens were killed during protests against immigration enforcement in Minneapolis in January.
ICE was not affected by the partial shutdown, but TSA monitors — who earn an average of $45,000 a year — have not been paid since mid-February as a result.
DHS “exists to protect the American people,” Johnson said. “Now more than ever, we need to fund this department, which is the third largest department in our government.” “We need to get out of the issue of linking political differences to government financing.”
“Separate the two. Go have a debate about masks, about court orders versus administrative orders…but separate that from funding and paying the wages of the workforce.”
Johnson said DHS employees “provide an invaluable service” to keeping Americans safe, and they deserve to be paid.
He particularly stressed the importance of TSA workers.
More than 360 TSA employees have resigned since the start of the shutdown.
“They are there to look for bombs on the plane you and your family are about to board,” he said. “There has to be an appropriation to fund this.”
“How many sectors of American life can you say to a worker: ‘Go to work,’ but I won’t pay you? Almost none – except the United States government.”
Senate Democrats blocked a bill Friday to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
Meanwhile, Trump announced Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would be deployed to airports to help clear the harrowing security lines of the Transportation Security Administration, which ran out of funding more than a month ago due to the shutdown.
The move is intended to speed up security lines, which have stretched for up to three hours at some airports, as TSA agents walk off work or call in sick because they have not been paid in weeks.
“On Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement will go to the airports to help the amazing TSA agents who have remained on the job despite the fact that radical left Democrats, who are focused solely on protecting hardened criminals who have entered our country illegally, are putting the United States at risk by withholding money that was agreed upon long ago with contracts signed and sealed and all.” Trump wrote on Truth Social.