Tom Cole: “Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot today about the Federal workers who are impacted by this lapse in funding. I have to…”

“Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot today about the Federal workers who are impacted by this lapse in funding. I have to say I am surprised to hear so many of my Republican colleagues suddenly express such ardent concern for the fate of Federal workers. Where was this concern when President Trump and Elon Musk decimated the Federal workforce last year? Where was the concern when they drove away close to 1,000 Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency employees? That is one-third of the staff out of our Nation's leading cybersecurity agency. Where was the outrage when President Trump proposed slashing funding for that same agency by $500 million? That was part of the President's budget, and there was not a peep from my Republican colleagues. Where were they when the Trump administration appointed a 22-year-old intern to head a key Department of Homeland Security's counterterrorism office? I have no patience for the crocodile tears being shed by anyone who sat by as President Trump and Kristi Noem tried to eliminate FEMA entirely, people who said not a word when the White House hollowed out whole agencies without the consent of the Congress. They were silent when all of these things happened. Now, all of a sudden, they are ardent defenders of cybersecurity and others.”