Amy Klobuchar: “I come to the floor to join my colleagues to call for an end to any political gamesmanship being played over this bill…”

“I come to the floor to join my colleagues to call for an end to any political gamesmanship being played over this bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. I thank Senators Shaheen and Mikulski for their leadership on this issue. They have introduced legislation I am proud to cosponsor and that provides the critical resources the Department of Homeland Security needs today and for the remainder of 2015. The issue of funding the Department of Homeland Security has become particularly important to my State. It is important to every State. New Hampshire cares a lot about the Coast Guard and many of the other agencies involved in security. In Minnesota we have actually had active recruiting, a first from al- Shabaab that recruited young men in the State of Minnesota--and particularly in the Twin Cities--to go to Somalia and to fight, including becoming suicide bombers. We actually had 18 Federal indictments that came out of that. Half of those people have already been convicted because of the fact our community--our Somali community--has been able to work with the law enforcement positively. We have been able to get the information to prosecute those cases. Then we go to Syria, something our Presiding Officer knows a lot about and is an expert on. The first American who was killed fighting on the side of the terrorists was from Minnesota. There is active recruiting that has been going on there.…”