Hoyer Discusses the War with Iran, Ongoing Department of Homeland Security Shutdown, Affordability Crisis Facing Americans on C-SPAN's Ceasefire

"The Constitution says it is the Congress who declares war, that has us go to war, and legislation we have passed to make sure that occurs has been ignored. In fact, the President thinks it's unconstitutional itself. As Mark said, he didn't come to any of us. He didn't come to anybody, apparently. He didn't come to any of our allies. He didn't come to any of the countries in the Middle East, other than perhaps Israel. He decided that this was a go."

"…and now we are in a war, the war that's costing the American people a lot of money, not only on gasoline, but every other price, and the tariffs he imposed did the same. …I think, had he talked to our allies, talked to Congress, had we reflected on it, we wouldn't be in this position."

ON THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS) SHUTDOWN

"There's been a shutdown for way too long…it's not about appropriations. It's about how ICE and CBP conduct themselves and particularly how they conducted themselves in Minnesota and some of the other areas in which they have 'surged,' as they call it, and in our opinion, undermine the constitutional rights of many people and killed some people in the process, tragically, and need to be held accountable."

"We are prepared and, in fact, voted for a bill that funded everything else, including the Coast Guard and FEMA and other agencies which are critical to our homeland security and critical to America. But because we would not vote to fund those two agencies until we have some agreement on how they are going to correctly and constitutionally perform their duties, the Republican party would not take the bill up that the Senate sent us, which was exactly that…all the rest of DHS should be open as of today and should have been opened months ago."

ON AFFORDABILITY AND TRUMP'S ECONOMIC POLICIES

"The President made a lot of claims of what he was going to do on the first day, or at least the first weeks. He said he was going to bring prices down - gasoline prices are up over a dollar everywhere. Utility costs are up almost everywhere. The tariffs have increased the prices on almost every good you buy that has been imported, maybe every one… people were upset about inflation and prices, and inflation went up, as I said, a point from February to March of this year. People are thinking, 'What you told us you were going to do hasn't been done.'"

" …We got to stop focusing on war, stop focusing on tearing down the White House, or building super monuments, and focus on what people thought they were voting for that is reducing the costs of their everyday life."