Déjà vu All Over Again

Last week, former Republican DHS Secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff urged the GOP to pass a clean measure to fund DHS and then debate immigration policy separately.

As this week begins, we are right back where we started. It is déjà vu all over again. Last Friday, my colleagues continued to hold as hostage the fate of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It is no exaggeration, no hysterical hyperbole to say that this impasse imperils the safety of every family in the country, including in Missouri's Fifth District.

The current solution we have reached? A one week continuing resolution, or "CR" that simply presses pause on the issue. I voted no on this pitiful and poorly thought-out proposal. A CR forces DHS to operate at last year's funding level. It gives no flexibility whatsoever to address the key demands and threats facing our country in 2015. And governing week by week is almost unbelievably foolish.

There is no question: at the end of this one-week CR, we will be right back to the brink of a Homeland Security shutdown all over again. In the meantime, this brief reprieve will hang over the heads of men and women at DHS, hindering their ability to keep our country secure. This continued uncertainty will distract these employees from focusing on their key responsibility: keeping us safe.

Not only is our safety at issue, but the sanity and livelihood of each hard-working public servant and service member at DHS. By requiring them to work without pay, a DHS shutdown would create real distractions and hardships for DHS frontline personnel, such as members of the Coast Guard and Border Patrol agents, and their families, and also damage employee morale. In Missouri alone, there are 2,266 DHS employees who will be affected by a Republican DHS Shutdown.

If a clean bill were brought to the Floor, it would pass, and we could debate other issues without the threat of chaos hanging over our heads. My colleagues are good and decent people. But they are putting the ideologies and interests of a fringe branch of their party ahead of the security of the United States. President Obama began dealing with our broken immigration system in November of last year, after months upon months of delay in Congress. In his executive actions, the President set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws – taking common sense steps to secure the border, hold undocumented immigrants accountable, and ensure everyone plays by the same rules.

The President's executive actions fall well within both the clear legal authority provided by Congress and the Constitution, and the well-established precedents of immigration actions by every Democrat and Republican President for the last 50 years. Let me be very clear:

• Six Republican presidents have used the same clear authority to make our immigration enforcement priorities better fit our values as a people and our needs as a nation.
• Past presidents have routinely acted in the face of Congressional inaction.
• Numerous noted legal scholars have found that the President's actions are well within his legal authority.

I have been to the border. I have seen the Trail of Fears. Now more than ever, we need reform.

It is my sincere hope that overall reform will begin to take shape soon, after stalling for years. I want to have that debate. But I believe we can have it without holding hostage an entire department of our American government. I will continue to fight for comprehensive immigration reform that will secure our borders, unite our families and offer an earned pathway to citizenship.

This short-term CR continues to delay critical state and local grants in Missouri and around the country. Without a full-year funding bill, DHS cannot award $2.5 billion in grant funding to state and local governments.

In 2014:

• Missouri received $3,978,000 in State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) funds. This program provides $401,346,000 to support the implementation of State homeland security strategies to address identified planning, organization, equipment, training, and exercise needs to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism and other catastrophic events.
• The Kansas City Area received $1,000,000 in Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) funds. UASI provides $587,000,000 to address the unique planning, organization, equipment, training, and exercise needs of high-threat, high-density Urban Areas, and assists them in building an enhanced and sustainable capacity to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism.
• The Kansas City Area received $282,457 in Urban Areas Security Initiative Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) funds. This program provides $13,000,000 in funding support for target hardening and other physical security enhancements and activities to nonprofit organizations that are at high risk of terrorist attack and located within one of the specific UASI-eligible Urban Areas.
• Missouri received $6,590,063 in Emergency Management Performance Grants (EMPG) funds. The EMPG program provides $350,100,000 to assist State, local, and tribal governments in preparing for all hazards.
• The Board of Police Commissioners of Kansas City received $49,300 in Port Security Grant Program (PSGP) funds. This program provides $100,000,000 or transportation infrastructure security activities to implement Area Maritime Transportation Security Plans and facility security plans among port authorities, facility operators, and State and local government agencies required to provide port security services.
• The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) received $75,000 in Transit Security Grant Program (TSGP) funds. This program provides $90,000,000 to the Nation's High-Threat Urban Areas for enhancement of security measures at critical transit infrastructure including bus, ferry, and rail systems.

We can be sane and sensible about this. Or we can continue to have the same fights over and over again, governing from crisis to crisis, without learning from our mistakes or moving beyond our missteps. I fear my colleagues have chosen the latter option.