Americans across the country are growing sick and tired of the lines growing longer at airports as Congress continues to fail to come up with a workable solution to provide funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which contains not only Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which provides security for airports.
Democrats, still fuming over the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, two anti-ICE agitators who were shot by federal immigration officers after being assaulted by the two individuals, refuse to sign off on funding for DHS due to the incidents. As a result, DHS has come to a halt and 260,000 families are not receiving their paychecks, and thus are not able to put food on the table.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) has come up with a great way to encourage Democrats to be a little more open-minded and sit down at the negotiating table and work some sort of funding package out. Moreno has introduced a new piece of legislation that would end congressional pay for the senators until an agreement is reached.
Moreno kicked off his introduction of the bill by pointing out that there are over 200,000 families who have members working for DHS and who are consistently doing their duty to keep the country safe that are currently not getting paid. “There are 260,000 people who work for our government, who are doing their jobs and not getting paid,” Moreno said.
“That, to me, is the crisis we should be talking about,” he then added, “And yes, I agree with my colleague from Vermont. We should not be worried about Mr. Musk or any of the other billionaires going hungry. I worry about TSA agents going hungry. I worry about our Coast Guard people going hungry. I worry about the people at FEMA going hungry.”
The Ohio Republican then called out his colleagues for sitting around in the Senate chamber, still getting paid, while there are others out of work because of the failure of Congress to get DHS funded. “And yet, with total disregard for over a quarter of a million families, we sit in this chamber and we’re getting paid. Everybody here is getting paid, and yet they’re not,” he continued.
He then gave Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) praise for being concerned about working-class Americans. “And I applaud my colleague from Vermont, who’s walking out on the floor, for caring about working Americans. Why don’t we care about them? Why don’t we fund DHS now?” Moreno asked his colleagues. He then criticized Democrats and even a few Republicans for having so much contempt in their hearts they would allow Americans to go hungry, as TSA agents, who mostly live paycheck-to-paycheck, have now missed three checks.
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Moreno then discussed the first business he bought and how he felt responsible for making sure that those he employed were able to put food on the table, noting that he felt the weight on his shoulders to make good decisions to avoid hurting those who worked for him. He then suggested that senators “take our paychecks away.”
” Let’s prevent us from flying home. Let’s make us — I’ll use your words — keep our butts here until we get the Senate. — that means today, tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday. We can play pickleball in between. It’ll be fantastic, okay,” he continued, adding, “But we don’t leave. If that means right through Easter, by the way, we do not leave this chamber, and we do not get paid and we lose pay every day that goes by until we have funded the whole thing.”
He then said that the problem could be worked out, noting that they didn’t want to defund ICE. He then requested that Democrats change their resolution to include funding the whole DHS for two weeks. “Let’s fund the whole thing for two weeks. Let’s get the American people to understand we can get things done. Let’s forget DC, let’s not leave this chamber, the Capitol, until we get this done. That’s my ask. That’s my plea.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video