Courtney Calls on Speaker Boehner to End Shutdown Games

Washington, D.C.—Moments ago, the Senate passed a “clean” full-year appropriations bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, sending the legislation to the House.

Despite this bipartisan effort in the Senate, House Republicans announced that they would refuse to pass this full-year appropriations bill to fund DHS, and instead bring up a bill to pass a three week stopgap funding measure, with no plan in place to move forward with a full appropriations bill within that time frame. Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-2) released the following statement in response to this failure:

“Speaker Boehner’s desperate attempt to call timeout as the Republican Conference squabbles among itself is a wholly inadequate substitute for passing the full year appropriations bill the Department of Homeland Security needs to work to protect the American people. A temporary stopgap delivers many of the same problems as a shutdown—including suspension of critical grant funding to local emergency response agencies, and deep uncertainty for the men and women who serve our nation every day in the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Agency, Customs and Border Protection, FEMA, and many other agencies.

“It is shameful that an intraparty disagreement could shut down DHS at a time when terrorist groups are publicly calling for attacks on America’s cities. This manufactured crisis could endanger our citizens and undermines our commitment to those who serve to protect our country. Instead of a misplaced argument over an unrelated immigration issue, I would welcome the opportunity to debate immigration policy in the context of a comprehensive reform bill. Speaker Boehner must stop ducking responsibility, fulfil his oath as a member of Congress, and bring the full year appropriations bill to the floor, without any poison-pill immigration language.”

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