Lucille Roybal-Allard: “The FY 2018 Department of Homeland Security funding bill addresses many bipartisan priorities, including maintaining…”

“The FY 2018 Department of Homeland Security funding bill addresses many bipartisan priorities, including maintaining funding for first responder and antiterrorism grants and the Emergency Food and Shelter Program. It provides increases above the request for the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Nonprofit Security grants, new Coast Guard assets, and ICE child exploitation investigations. It also restores funding for Science and Technology Centers of Excellence. The bill restores funding for flood mapping grants, which the administration proposed to eliminate, and funding for pre-disaster mitigation grants, for which the administration proposed a 60 percent cut. These grants support precisely the kinds of programs that help communities mitigate and prepare for the impacts of natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey, and we should be investing in them even more. The bill also provides the President's request for the Disaster Relief Fund. We will, however, need to appropriate more money beyond that approved by the House earlier today in order to address the damage caused by Harvey and, potentially, Irma. While there is much in this bill Democrats can support, unfortunately, for several reasons, we cannot support this bill. For example, we cannot support the bill's $705 million increase for Interior immigration enforcement.…”