Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Republicans Refusing To Pay TSA Agents And Donald Trump’s Disturbing Plan To Send ICE Agents To Airports

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on the Senate floor calling out Republican hypocrisy as they plan to send ICE agents to airports instead of allowing funding to pass to pay TSA agents. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

The Senate is in session once again this weekend, and once again, Republicans are doing nothing productive. Yesterday, instead of considering legislation to tackle inflation, or end the war in Iran, MAGA Republicans wasted Senate floor time on a radical culture war amendment that went nowhere. It failed, and it accomplished nothing. A total waste of time, with nothing to show for it.

And yesterday, Republicans once again blocked the Senate's ability to finally start paying our TSA workers. These workers have now gone weeks without pay. They work around the clock. They keep our airports running. And Republicans had their chance to pay them and they refused. They refused.

And the bottom line is, this was the first time we saw yes or no votes from Republicans on an amendment that simply said pay them. Don't wait, as the Republicans are saying, until we resolve all the other issues on ICE. It simply said pay them now, and they said no. And that shows you, when Republicans vote yes on bills that won't actually pay them-because it won't pass-because it's tied to all the other complications in ICE, including the desire that the American people have that we must have warrants when you bust into someone's homes, that the police should not wear masks. They say they'll only vote for TSA agents if we get rid of those things, if we don't make sure they have to wear masks. That's fake. That's not really helping TSA workers. Our amendment did. They all voted no, but we're going to keep at it.

I say this to TSA workers, I say this people at the airports who are waiting on lines, waiting ungodly hours: we will keep doing this and doing this until the Republicans see the light, feel the pressure that they are holding up payment, and relent.

Now, today, Donald Trump and Tom Homan are saying they will deploy ICE agents to airports starting on Monday. This is disturbing. ICE agents, who are untrained and have caused problems everywhere they've gone, lurking at our airports-that's asking for trouble. And it will certainly make the chaos at our airports worse. No one has any faith in ICE agents. They haven't received training. They don't know what it is to be a TSA person and do what you need to do there.

And the real problem here is they have no plan for using these ICE agents. Trump says "send them there," they send them there, and Homan says they are still drawing up plans, with less than a day's notice. What is this? We know what it is. It's another impulsive action by Donald Trump. Some idea pops into his head, he announces it, and then the people working for him, a few of whom do have some degree of talent and ability-not many-underlings, they have to rush and try to implement what they know is an idiotic plan. In this case, it is a plan with no planning. It's another impulsive action from Donald Trump, and when he acts impulsively there is usually trouble. Whenever Donald Trump acts impulsively with no follow through, there's trouble. ICE will be asked to do things they are not trained to do. They don't know how to perform core TSA screening functions. Travelers will be on edge with federal agents looking over their shoulders. All they will do is worsen the situation at airports, which are already on edge.

So I have an idea for Donald Trump: instead of sending ICE agents to harass travelers at airports, why doesn't Trump get his act together and agree to pay TSA workers, and get Senate Republicans to do so?

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