U.S. Senator Katie Britt Joins Senate GOP Leadership to Discuss Democrats’ DHS Shutdown

'Despite countless offers to sit down and try to find a pathway forward, [Democrats] will not even have a conversation with us'

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.), chair of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, joined Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.Dak.), Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), and other members of Senate Republican leadership to discuss the ongoing Democrat-led shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

On the current state of DHS negotiations and how vital agencies that keep Americans safe continue to go unfunded: "It's a disappointing day. We are 38, 39 days past when we decided we would do a two-week CR, which we gave the Democrats in good faith to be able to have a conversation about the proper way to fund the Department of Homeland Security moving forward. We are now 24, 25 days into a government shutdown with a department that is actually charged with keeping Americans safe… This is reckless and it's disingenuous."

On Democrats' far-left political pandering and refusal to sit at the table to find a pathway forward: "Here [Democrats] are telling you they want to see reforms, but I am here to tell you that they have not come to the table. Despite countless offers to sit down and try to find a pathway forward, they will not even have a conversation with us. So, you are 38, 39 days past when we decided this pathway forward and agreed to them to work on this, and they have not sat down one time. Folks, that means that this is all about politics. It was never about people.

"We stand here ready to put the safety of Americans in front of that, and I would hope our Democratic colleagues would do the same. But at the very least, they must answer for that: Not being willing to have a conversation, not being willing to figure out a pathway forward. [Republicans] certainly are. We stand ready to do that. We stand ready to do what's right for the American people."

You can watch the Senator's full remarks here.

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