On the recordFebruary 27, 2015
I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present H.J. Res. 35, a short-term continuing resolution to keep the Department of Homeland Security open and operating until March 19, 2015. This type of bandaid, stopgap funding fix is not the way we should be running things around here. It is the constitutional duty of this body to provide funding for the Federal Government, all of the Federal Government, and this should be done through regular order, without the threat of shutdowns or the lurching uncertainty of continuing resolutions. Mr. Speaker, we face an immediate deadline that makes this continuing resolution a necessity. Without it, the Department of Homeland Security will shutter its doors at the stroke of midnight tonight. This would put thousands of Federal employees on furlough, waste taxpayer dollars, and create instability at the Department tasked with one of the most important functions of government, potentially risking our national security. The House must pass this bill in short order to keep the lights on at the Department of Homeland Security in the near term. Hopefully, this will buy us the additional time necessary. I would prefer and I hope that we pass the full-year, regular DHS funding bill that we negotiated on a bipartisan, bicameral basis last fall. Until both Chambers of Congress agree on how to do that, we must continue to fund the essential daily operations of our homeland security.…
