Johnson: ‘Everybody in America better watch’ how lawmakers vote on DHS funding

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters on Wednesday that “everybody in America” should watch how their representatives vote on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill expected to come to the floor on Thursday.

“You better watch that board. And everybody in America better watch that board. Anybody who votes to block funding for the homeland, it is shameful,” Johnson said. “I don’t know how to describe it. It speaks to a long record of Democrats’ deliberate efforts to undermine America’s safety and the essential operations of DHS.”

Democrats have demanded that the White House significantly reform its immigration enforcement tactics after the killings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minnesota, and have refused to support any DHS bill that comes to the floor without those reforms. But the White House and Democrats have been deadlocked over a deal to reopen DHS, which shut down early Feb. 14 after a two-week stopgap measure to keep the department funded at existing levels expired.

Republicans have been ramping up pressure on Democrats to support the DHS bill in the wake of the U.S. attack on Iran. The bill is largely identical to the one that had passed the lower chamber in January, before the death of 37-year-old Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti.

Democratic leadership have been opposed to the bill, however. 

“Donald Trump launches an unauthorized war in the Middle East. He characterizes it as endless. He decides that he wants to spend billions of dollars to bomb Iran, rather than spend taxpayer dollars to lower the grocery bills that are crushing the American people,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said during a press conference on Tuesday.

“And then wants to use his unauthorized war as an excuse to continue spending taxpayer dollars to brutalize or kill American citizens by continuing to unleash ICE without restrictions on the American people. The whole thing is insane. Make it make sense, because it does not,” Jeffries added. 

A whip notice shared with Politico had urged House Democrats to vote against the bill, arguing it contains “no new language to end the chaos caused by ICE in communities across the country.” 

Johnson argued during the press conference that the military action in Iran “makes it all more urgent and crucial to have a fully funded, fully staffed DHS across all its departments.”

“We have Democrats running around here playing political games in Congress. It’s infuriating. They shut down the very agency that is responsible for securing the homeland. The Democrats have shut down the agency responsible for keeping Americans safe. Unbelievable,” Johnson said.

The bill is expected to pass the House, but will likely be dead on arrival in the Senate, where it will need some Democratic support to overcome a filibuster.

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