On the recordApril 14, 2015
Mr. President, I do not know if I am going to be able to have time to get into this. For the last several months this year, I have been taking time 1 day a month to talk a bit about an employee in the Department of Homeland Security. Of all the Departments in the Federal Government--the largest Department--it has the lowest morale. We have been working hard with them to do something about that. We are doing small things that nonetheless is to remind everybody that folks in the Department of Homeland Security, in some cases, risk their lives, invest their lives in trying to make sure we have a life and a good life and a safe life. They are worthy of our praise. What I am going to do tonight--unless I get run off the floor because of other business--I want to talk about one of them. As the Presiding Officer knows, the Department was recently the center of a budget battle on Capitol Hill. For weeks, it was unclear if the Department was going to face a shutdown, another short-term continuing resolution or receive the full-year funding they needed. Fortunately, Congress did its job and sent a clean funding bill for the rest of the fiscal year to the President's desk. The employees are grateful for that and certainly I am as well. While the Department's employees and leadership can now return to their focus on keeping America safe from threats our country faces, we should not ignore the harm the latest debate inflicted on the already low morale of employees at the Department.…





