Amodei Remarks at Oversight Hearing on Department of Homeland Security (As Prepared)

Welcome back to the House, Secretary Mullin. I sincerely thank you for being here. The Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations process was, as some might say, less than ideal for the Department of Homeland Security.  We had a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on the bill, until the situation in Minnesota. The Senate, in their infinite wisdom, took Homeland out of the minibus – leaving us on the battlefield.

It doesn’t take a political genius to know what would happen next. Breaking a record that we should not be quick to repeat, the Department went 75 days without funding during the failed negotiations between the White House and the Senate on so-called reforms to ICE and the Border Patrol.

So, our Senate friends, made another decision that I fundamentally disagreed with – to pull out Border Patrol and ICE and fund the rest of the Department. Republicans were then forced to use the reconciliation process to provide funding for those components for the next three years through the Secure America Act. 

While I’m glad that the men and women of those two agencies finally have consistent and reliable funding – we should never fund base operations outside of the normal appropriations process. When combined with the first reconciliation bill, DHS has access to $260 billion in resources – a mix of long-term investments and basic, keep-the-lights-on operational dollars.

At some point that funding for base operations will have to come back into the appropriations process – and it will be a painful exercise for everyone involved. Two weeks ago, the Committee passed the Fiscal Year 2027 DHS funding bill – completely intact – with Border Patrol and ICE funded as they normally are.

Going forward, it will be important for the Appropriations Committee to retain control and oversight over the entire DHS annual budget. We will continue to work with you and your team to ensure that the department gets the resources that it needs to protect the homeland. I’ll now turn to my colleague, the distinguished gentleman from Texas, Mr. Cuellar, for his opening remarks.