Sen. Patty Murray: Claims That Democrats Don’t Want to Deal on Funding Critical Agencies Are ‘Ridiculous’

EXCERPT:

MURRAY: “Republicans are acting like they have no idea what the problem is or what Democrats and what the American people are demanding here. And now Republicans are not only dragging their feet on the basic reforms, they are refusing to fund TSA and FEMA and other important DHS functions while these negotiations continue. Now, Mr. President, in my view, that's just plain wrong. If Republicans are going to drag their feet on common sense reforms to protect their own constituents from having their door broken in by masked federal agents without so much as a warrant, then they should, at a minimum, work with us to make sure that TSA is funded. At minimum, we should make sure that disaster relief is not put at risk and that our cyber defense agency is fully operational. I offered a bill to get this done, to fund all of DHS, except ICE, Border Patrol, and former Secretary Noem's office. But last week, after spending the entire week talking about how important these parts of DHS are, Senate Republicans blocked that bill. But I'm here today to give Republicans another opportunity to do the right thing and ask my Republican colleagues to put politics aside for a moment, work with us to get TSA and FEMA funded now, and press ahead to rein in ICE and Border Patrol. Mr. President, my colleagues know me. They know I will talk to anyone who is serious about getting results. But the problem right now, the reason we are here at an impasse, is not because Democrats don't want a deal. That's ridiculous.”