“They Are Voting Against the Same People That Are There to Protect Them”: Homeland Republicans Highlight Democrat DHS Shutdown Risks

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- House Committee on Homeland Security Republicans are raising concerns about the ongoing funding lapse affecting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), due to Senate Democrats blocking the House-passed bipartisan Fiscal Year 2026 DHS appropriations bill. As the shutdown continues, many of the roughly 250,000 DHS employees have been forced to work without pay or have been put on leave, placing unnecessary strain on the workforce dedicated to protecting the homeland.

Last week, Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence Chairman August Pfluger (R-TX) joined Newsmax's John Bachman Now, Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) joined the Fox News Rundown, Rep. Vince Fong (R-CA) joined NewsNation's Morning in America, and Rep. Sheri Biggs (R-SC) joined Fox News Live to highlight the real-world consequences of Democrats refusing to fully fund DHS, emphasizing the toll it takes on DHS personnel, the consequences on state and local law enforcement coordination, and the potential risks to public safety.

This week, the Committee will hold a hearing with testimony from officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), U.S. Coast Guard, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Watch Subcommittee Chairman Pfluger's interview on Newsmax here .

On how the Democrats' shutdown is putting unnecessary strain on DHS's workforce, Rep. Pfluger said:

"They're deliberately blocking DHS employees, 100,000 employees, by the way, from doing their job. And let's remember, their whole job, it doesn't matter which job we're talking about, whether it's a TSA agent, or a Border Patrol officer, or a Customs officer, their whole job is to protect America, to protect Americans. They are voting against the same people that are there to protect them… There are reports out of places, like DFW, that TSA agents are having to sell plasma just to make ends meet and to pay the bills. I mean, this is one of the most tragic things that I have seen that they can't even come to the table to fund the people that are there to protect them, their families, their kids, and their communities."

Listen to Rep. Evans' interview on Fox News Radio here .

On how DHS funding supports state and local law enforcement and is needed to prevent vulnerabilities, Rep. Evans said:

"Well, the first thing…specifically the Democrats in the Senate can do to support our state and local law enforcement is fund the Department of Homeland Security. You mentioned 9/11. It's been 25 years this year. One of the things that came out of 9/11 was a realization that we need to have better integration between federal, state, and local law enforcement when it comes to tracking known or suspected terrorists or known or suspected acts toward preparing for a terrorist attack…And so that's where the Department of Homeland Security came from. That's where these concepts of things like fusion centers came from, to fuse that federal, state, and local criminal intelligence and information, to be able to identify all of the different data points that can help us interdict and stop a terrorist attack, [including] a homegrown terrorist attack, before it happens."

"When 46 Senate Democrats absolutely refuse to fund the Department of Homeland Security, that is a big blind spot that is a degradation of the capabilities of state and local law enforcement to be able to stop and interdict these things because they get a lot of the intelligence around this from our federal partners."

On the heightened radicalization and terror threats on U.S. soil, Rep. Evans said:

"Unfortunately, the radical left, radical leftist Democrats in the United States today aren't proud of America… You do have folks in the United States that are susceptible to being swayed over to lend material support or engage in acts of terrorism when you have a major political party that is struggling to do something as basic as condemn Hamas, condemn Hezbollah, and condemn these acts of terrorism that we see around the world."

Watch Rep. Fong's interview on NewsNation here .

On rising threats from our adversaries in cyberspace and how the DHS shutdown is impacting CISA, Rep. Fong said:

"When you talk about robotics, when you talk about AI, certainly they're trying to infiltrate our systems, our government systems… You just saw, last week, there was a state-sponsored Iranian cyber hack when it comes to medical devices. China has been doing these cyberattacks for a very long time… You have cyberattacks against hospitals, water systems, other soft targets that certainly are across the country. So, we need to take these risks seriously. This is why we need to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. Every single agency tasked with protecting American security needs to be operating at full strength."

"China and Russia and Iran have been coordinating for a very long time… The fact that we have our cybersecurity agency not operating at full strength is very concerning. These are our infrastructure. This is our American lives and security that has been degraded."

Watch Rep. Biggs' interview on Fox here .

On the importance of advancing funding for all components of DHS, Rep. Biggs said:

"I know my party, the Republican Party, knows how important this is right now to have Homeland Security up and running full force… We talk about the TSA workers and those individuals that are missing their paychecks, and my heart goes out to them. There's a flip side to that, too. When I think about how dangerous this is right now, in light of the heightened security and alert that's going on in our country, I think it's very foolish… In the last two weeks, we have had four incidents that impact our homeland security and I think it's foolish to negotiate. They're not being reasonable, and they're not being rational, and they're not putting America's safety first."

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