Politics & Government
Hours After Terror Attacks In US, Democrats Block DHS Funding Yet Again
There were threats of sleeper cells from Tehran and terror-motivated attacks Thursday. But it was business as usual for Democrats in D.C.
There were threats of sleeper cells from Tehran and terror-motivated attacks in Michigan and Virginia on Thursday. But it was business as usual for Democrats in Washington, D.C., as the Senate blocked Homeland Security funding for a fourth time.
A message from Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, pledged to “avenge the blood of our martyrs” and warned the Islamist regime would be “opening other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and would be highly vulnerable.”
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But Democrats who used the cloture rule to block the Department of Homeland Security budget in a 51-46 vote had a different message.
“We can’t let Minneapolis happen again,” said Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., after the vote.
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Democrats like Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen are demanding changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy before they will allow funding for the agency, which includes Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration. (Shaheen was a no-show for Thursday’s vote.)
In addition to security concerns, there have been hours-long backups at major airports across the U.S. Since the last full spending bill was passed in mid-January, some 300 TSA workers have quit.
Republicans accused Democrats of putting politics ahead of public safety. A clearly exasperated Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., spoke from the Senate floor.
“At a time when our homeland is under attack, all warning lights are flashing red, and they (Democrats) want to peel apart, piece by piece, the Department of Homeland Security, the comprehensive department of our government to protect the American people, because they want to stand with illegal immigrant criminals,” Barrasso said.
On the NHJournal podcast Thursday, former Sen. John E. Sununu called out Democrats for “preventing (TSA agents) from getting a paycheck, or the people in the Coast Guard or Homeland Security — that’s outrageous.
“This is where politics crosses over into doing the wrong thing for New Hampshire, and that’s exactly where Chris Pappas is today.”
Rep. Chris Pappas is the likely Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in November. He voted against the DHS funding bill when it passed the House.
The optics on Thursday were not favorable to Democrats.
In Norfolk, Va., a former member of the Army National Guard who spent eight years in prison for aiding and abetting the Islamic State was heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he began shooting at Old Dominion University. One person was killed, and two others were injured, before the gunman was subdued and killed by ROTC students.
Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, a professor of military science and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, was killed by the gunman. He had been awarded two Bronze Stars for his military service.
Later in the day, a man drove his truck into a synagogue in a Detroit suburb and was killed in an exchange of gunfire with the building’s security guards.
Pappas would not respond to questions from NHJournal about his continued opposition to approving the DHS budget.
This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.
