Dick Durbin: “I don't understand why the Republicans in the House and the Senate have decided to hold up one appropriations bill of…”

“I don't understand why the Republicans in the House and the Senate have decided to hold up one appropriations bill of our Federal Government, the appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security, the one agency that is supposed to protect us against terrorism. Last December, the House Republicans said: We are just not going to give regular funding to this Department--$48 billion this Department spends on the Coast Guard, border security, and a myriad of different things to keep America safe--but the Republicans said this is one agency we are not going to fully fund. We will put them on temporary funding, called a continuing resolution, and we will get back to you on February 27. Then what they did is to lash the budget of this Department to the thorny, difficult issue of immigration and insist that we can't fund the Department of Homeland Security unless we take up what I consider to be some rather outrageous riders put on by the House of Representatives on the issue of immigration. The good news is we have come up with a solution on this side. I am going to make it in the manner of a unanimous consent request, and it is very straightforward. First, because Senator Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire has stepped forward and offered, with Senator Mikulski, S. 272, we have a clean appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security. If the Senator would like me to yield for a question, I will yield at this point. The PRESIDING OFFICER.…”