Amodei Remarks at Oversight Hearing on Potential DHS Shutdown Impacts

I am pleased to be joined by the Subcommittee’s distinguished Ranking Member, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Cuellar, as well as the Chairman of the Full Committee, Mr. Cole and the Full Committee Ranking Member, Ms. DeLauro.

Welcome to our distinguished panel. I sincerely thank you for being here – especially on such short notice.

I’m going to do something completely out of character for me – I’m going to start with a brief opening statement.

The focus of this hearing is fairly straightforward.

Absent the passage of a Continuing Resolution by Friday night, the Department of Homeland Security will shut down.

We have already passed the deadline when bill text should have been shared with Members, in accordance with the 72-hour rule in the House.

At this point, finalizing a bill before the 13th seems impossible. A shutdown has gone from a distinct possibility to a likelihood.

But not all components will equally share the pain during a shutdown.

Congress made a historic investment in border security and immigration to the tune of $191 billion dollars last year – but outside of ICE, most of this funding is for long-term investments, not day-to-day operations. So, while my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, most of whom did not vote for the Homeland bill when it was being considered in the House last month, will focus on ICE and CBP, those agencies’ missions will be largely unaffected by a shutdown.

Instead, the pain will be felt by the men and women of TSA, who will once again work to keep our airways safe without a paycheck.

There will be uncertainty for our Coast Guard men and women – who have no choice but to show up for work.

It will slow down shipbuilding.

It will reduce the amount of funding in the Disaster Relief Fund – just weeks after massive winter storms affected wide swaths of the country.

It will show up for Secret Service agents who put the lives on the line to protect the nation’s elected leaders, and their families will likely work without pay.

It will increase the workload and pressure on our front-line cybersecurity defenders at CISA who will work with less staff and without pay.

And of course, the dedicated civil servants across the Department who are furloughed will not receive a paycheck.

So, if we shut down the Department over ICE and CBP enforcement actions in Minneapolis and my colleagues’ list of extreme policy demands, here is what will happen:

• Immigration and removal operations will continue.
• Wall construction will continue.
• Anything funded by reconciliation will continue.

The good work the Department does outside of immigration enforcement will come to a screeching halt and that’s what today’s hearing is all about.