Transportation Security Administration Pay Act of 2026

I object.

Mr. President, there is not a pending motion on the floor currently?

Seeking recognition on my own right.

Mr. President, yesterday and today, Democrats have been on the floor asking for something very simple: Let's open up TSA. Let's open up CISA, which protects this country from cyber attack. Let's open up the Coast Guard. Let's open up FEMA.

Republicans have said ``no'' repeatedly. Yesterday, we said: Let's open all four Agencies up together. Republicans denied us that motion. Today, we are trying to see if we can open up one at a time.

What Republicans are saying is that: We want to hold TSA, our airports, the protection of our coastline, the defense of this Nation from cyber attacks, and our response to emergencies hostage to their determination to continue to fund a law enforcement operation at ICE that is out of control.

So Republicans are saying: We are going to keep TSA shut. We are going to keep the Coast Guard shut. We are going to keep FEMA shut until you allow the President to continue to terrorize our communities with a lawless, out-of-control ICE.

This isn't just what you see on the news. The scenes out of Minneapolis were horrific, unconscionable, American citizens being gunned down on the streets. One Federal judge found that ICE is in violation of 96 different court orders right now all across the country. Courts have ruled in 4,000 cases that ICE has jailed people illegally.

ICE is behaving in a brazenly lawless and unconstitutional manner, and none of us--Republican or Democrat--should be interested in funding a part of the Federal Government that is operating outside of the bounds of law.

We swore an oath to the Constitution. And so we have a serious discussion that is happening as we speak between Republicans and Democrats about how we can come together to fund ICE. But while that discussion happens, why are we keeping shut down the Coast Guard, TSA, FEMA? It is not necessary.

If Republicans just stopped coming to the floor to object, we could open up TSA right now. We could get those salaries paid.

I am going to offer a motion to open up funding for the Coast Guard. We could get the people who protect our shorelines paid.

And, yes, this is a mess. This is a mess. I admit it. This is a mess. But we didn't have shutdowns when Democrats were in charge of the Senate.

We are at a logjam because the Republicans refuse to listen to the very reasonable concerns that Democrats and the American people have about the way that ICE is behaving.

And by the way, we aren't representing some fringe political constituency. In the last national poll, 60 percent of Americans said that Congress should not fund ICE until they clean up their act. The vast majority of Americans believe that that Agency is out of control.

But if you went out there and asked those same Americans whether they think that TSA and the Coast Guard and FEMA should be shut down while we resolve those differences, they would say: Hell no. Open up the airports. Protect our shorelines.

So we are going to continue to come to the floor and attempt to convince Republicans to release these hostages.

I know that you are committed to supporting the President's lawlessness. I don't understand why you won't stand up and say it is wrong that there are 96 different court orders that ICE has violated, it is wrong that American citizens are being killed on the streets, that it is wrong that schools are being tear gassed.

But while we are having this difference of opinion on ICE that is sort of hard to understand, don't hold the rest of the Department of Homeland Security hostage to your insistence that the President get to act outside the bounds of law when it comes to the enforcement of our immigration laws.

I am going to offer a motion. And, again, yesterday, we offered a motion to open up all of the rest of the Department of Homeland Security. I am going to offer a more targeted motion.

On the average day, the Coast Guard saves 12 lives, interdicts 1,250 pounds of cocaine, screens 300 vessels. It would be really important to get our Coast Guard opened up.

I know my colleague from Delaware thinks the same thing. Right before I offer the motion, I yield to her for a quick question.

I thank the Senator for the question.

I do.

Especially at a time when the United States is at war, we cannot afford to have our coastlines undefended. The motions that Republicans have been making today have offered to pay the Coast Guard for 2 weeks. That is not good enough.

Right now, this motion that I will make will allow the Coast Guard to be paid for the rest of the year. If the Senator does not object to my motion, then minutes from now, the Coast Guard--the 52,000 people who work for the Coast Guard--will know that we honor their service and that we are going to pay them for the rest of the year, and so here is my motion.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of my bill at the desk that would fund the Coast Guard; that the bill be considered read three times and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

My friend, you have lost the argument with the public. You just have. The public thinks that ICE is out of control. The public does not want ICE to continue operating in the way that they are operating. They have seen the scenes out of Minneapolis. They are watching what is happening in Vermont today. And they don't agree with you. The majority of Americans, by a large margin, say that what is happening today is out of control.

And, yes, you did offer motions to keep the Coast Guard open for 2 weeks. That doesn't help the peace of mind of the 52,000 people who work for the Coast Guard and wonder whether they are going to have more than one paycheck.

You are objecting to a motion to keep them open for the rest of the year. And so tomorrow, when TSA is still not open and the Coast Guard is still not open, and FEMA is still not operating, there is only one reason.

Today you are offering motions to keep them open for 2 weeks, and you are objecting to motions to keep those Agencies open for the whole year. People are going to see the difference.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I object.

Mr. President, you know, I appreciate my colleague, but we have had more than 2 weeks. So where have you been? Where have you been?

This is a nonstarter. Come to the table. Let's give ICE the same training as local law enforcement, as our FBI. We want ICE agents that are transparent, trained, and accountable, not acting above the law.

So now we are almost a month into the Republican shutdown of Homeland Security. The Republicans control the White House, the House, and the Senate. So let's remember how we got here. Donald Trump and Kristi Noem were so, so eager to carry out their cruel mass deportation agenda that they actually cut training for ICE officers from 5 months--imagine this--to 47 days. Why 47 days? Well, you can't even make this up-- because it honors Donald Trump, who is the 47th President. So you cut down 5 months to 47 days. What are you thinking about adequate training?

By cutting training and increasing recruitment, Trump and Kristi Noem sent thousands of untrained agents with their guns and their badges into communities all across this country. They added deportation quotas for these officers to meet, and Trump and Kristi Noem pushed these untrained officers to round up as many people as they could wherever they could, and that included legal immigrants and American citizens. That is right.

Instead of deporting illegal, violent criminals--something we do all agree on, by the way--they went after legal permanent residents, visa holders, law-abiding citizens, with devastating consequences when we saw two of our fellow Americans brutally murdered in Minneapolis.

The American people were rightfully horrified and angry, and they demanded accountability, which is exactly what Senate Democrats are pushing for.

We proposed a commonsense, basic idea that ICE officers, well, should just be required to follow the same standards as our local law enforcement--all of my colleagues here--your law enforcement has to follow. That is it. Simple. We want ICE officers to wear body cams, end roving patrols, use judicial warrants, and to respect people's rights. It should be a no-brainer.

Democrats have been ready and willing in good faith to enact these commonsense reforms, fund the Department, and keep our country safe, and, shamefully, our Republican colleagues have refused to pass these reforms. They would rather see the Homeland Security Department shut down than pass commonsense guardrails to hold ICE accountable, rein them in, and as a result, the American people are paying the price. Travelers at our airports, seeing longer lines. TSA officers are being forced to work without pay.

As the Senator from Nevada, you are right--I know just how serious the situation is. My State relies heavily on tourism. More than 50 million visitors travel to Nevada every year to attend conventions, visit our beautiful public lands, enjoy live entertainment, sports, and we support hundreds of thousands of hospitality workers.

Air travel is the gateway to our economy, so when TSA staffing levels drop because officers aren't getting paid, wait times at airport security checkpoints stretch longer and longer. It doesn't just inconvenience travelers; it does undermine security and directly threatens jobs, businesses, and livelihoods across our State.

That is why I rise today with a very simple and practical proposal. If we can't move forward funding the entire Department--sitting down, negotiating in good faith, which you have had plenty of time to do already--we should be at least able to come together to pay the hard- working staff of one of its most essential components: TSA.

Let's not have TSA officers in the middle of this fight. They don't deserve it. We all agree their salaries should be funded, so let's fund it. Let's do it.

Today, I am asking my colleagues to take a simple step. Let's pass my legislation right now and pay the TSA workers so that commercial air travel remains safe and functional and our TSA agents receive the pay they have earned.

I am introducing this bill today with Commerce Committee Ranking Member Cantwell so we can finally get our airports moving again. If Republicans are going to insist on shutting down the Department of Homeland Security, they should at the very least join us in ensuring that the traveling public does not pay the price.

They even implied in their own tweet that they are for funding TSA, so let's see if that is true, because, you know what, tweets are easy. Tweets are easy. Talk is easy. Will they back up what they say with their votes? We are about to find out.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4073, submitted earlier today, and that would fund the TSA; that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, we can fully fund DHS right now--right now--if Washington Republicans will just agree to commonsense reforms for ICE--the same ones that local law enforcement have: Identify yourself. Wear a body camera. It is good for the agent and for the community. Get full training. Respect our Bill of Rights. We want them to be trained, transparent, and accountable like every other law enforcement officer in this country.

I find it extremely disappointing that you haven't come to the table for those commonsense reforms so far. We can let the TSA and other parts of Homeland go and continue to negotiate. Let's remember that the Big Beautiful Bill gave tens of billions of dollars to ICE. They are not running out of money or any pay anytime soon.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, just over a year ago, Los Angeles County fell victim to the worst natural disaster in my lifetime. The Eaton and Palisade fires were unthinkable tragedies--lives taken; livelihoods incinerated; old photographs, family heirlooms, childhood homes gone forever; the homes of more constituents, friends, staff gone, along with the place where my wife and I got married; whole blocks of neighborhoods razed with indiscriminate and random destruction.

In the year since, alongside Senator Padilla, I have worked to help the families impacted by these fires in every way I can. I visited recovery efforts in the earliest days of the fires, meeting with survivors and lending a hand where I could to help families grieving what these fires took from them.

My team and I have facilitated Federal, State, and local connections for these communities, trying to ensure they have the resources they need to recover. I have introduced legislation to help families better protect their

homes in the future and to bring down insurance rates.

But so much work remains. It has been more than a year since the fires, and Congress has yet to move forward on much needed Federal disaster aid for L.A. County. We have urged the President to act. We have called on Congress to act--just as we have with fires, hurricanes, and floods of the past in States red and blue--to pass a supplemental that gives us a fighting chance at building stronger than before.

Yet, for the first time, disaster relief is being apportioned not on the basis of need but on the basis of political affiliation, as if these fires discriminate between homes that voted for the President and those that did not. We have called on the President and this Congress to drop discrimination against California or other States based on no more than its political leanings, and we continue that call today.

But the lack of disaster aid for California and other States is not the only place where this Congress is failing to meet the needs of the American people. Right now, the very Federal Agency we call upon to facilitate disaster recovery, FEMA, is shut down. The Agency whose job it is to provide financial assistance to families and aid the recovery process until houses can be rebuilt and families can move back into their homes has no money from Congress to operate. As a result, this critical Agency, already understaffed, has an even more diminished capacity to help do these critical jobs.

This has gone on for weeks and is unacceptable, and that is what we are here today to change. With this legislation, we can reopen FEMA today. We can give paychecks to the people whose job it is to get Los Angeles and communities across the country back on their feet. We can remove unnecessary slowdowns in the approval processes, in recovery applications, because of the lack of staffing. We can put ourselves on a pathway to finally passing a disaster aid package.

Now, this is not the first time we have tried to reopen FEMA. Senate Democrats have tried to call up and pass legislation to open this Agency multiple times in recent weeks, but we have been told no. And why? Because my colleagues across the aisle continue to insist that this Agency and others--like TSA, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Coast Guard--cannot reopen until we pass another multibillion-dollar infusion of resources for ICE and CBP.

Senate Democrats have been clear: not another dime for these immigration enforcement Agencies until we see real reforms, until they take off the masks and put on the body cams, until they are held to the same standard as the neighborhood cop on the beat, until their standard of ``no judicial warrant, no problem'' is torn out of the training manual. That is not too much to ask.

In the aftermath of Americans watching DHS storming city apartment buildings like they were behind enemy lines or ICE dragging citizens from their homes or CBP gunning down Americans in cold blood in the street, this cannot be too much to ask. We are seeing families torn apart, citizens detained without medical care, fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, aunts and uncles, children detained because of the color of their skin or the language they speak or where they work. We have seen DHS spending $140 million on assault weapons, Glocks, and tasers and countless more on building massive new detention centers.

So we are insisting on reform. We reject the false choice the majority would give us that we cannot reform ICE until we agree to give ICE billions more. These cannot be the only two choices.

Let's pass this commonsense bill and reopen FEMA today. Let's get disaster recovery efforts moving forward. We can do both. We can help Californians in need and others across the country.

So, Mr. President, as in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, on behalf of Senator Padilla and myself, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the bill at the desk to make continuing appropriations for the Federal Emergency Management pay and operations in the event of a Federal Government shutdown and for other purposes; that the bill be considered read three times and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask for unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 156, H.R. 4553; I ask that the substitute amendment, No. 4353, be considered and agreed to; the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, this is the DHS bill that would fund all the things that are in the DHS bill that the Democrats negotiated until they pulled the rug out from underneath that negotiation to politically grandstand on the Senate floor now for nearly a month.

The truth of the matter is that--I want to make the point for those who care about the way the Senate operates. First of all, we didn't have any appropriations bills the first 2 years. The majority party has now put appropriations bills on. There have been 11 out of 12.

I was told that policy debates are not to enter the discussion on appropriations bills because things like this can happen.

To my Democrat colleagues: If you have a bill that you want to defund ICE with, put it on the floor. I guarantee it will get voted down because it is an extremely unpopular position.

We are not going to let you get to that result by way of holding everyone else hostage.

If you want to support all the Agencies in this negotiated bill, you have a way to do it. But I think we really know what this is about. What this is really about is the Democrats lost an election where the issue of border enforcement and deportations were on the table, front and center in front of the voters, and the voters supported it. Recent polling still shows that.

But to satisfy their radicalized base--which are the same people, these leftist NGOs that conjure and foment discontent, blow whistles, try to create confrontations with ICE agents--won't let them do it, and they are kind of stuck.

So the only thing they have left now is the same playbook they ran a couple of months ago by shutting down the government, but this time they are shutting down DHS.

And to make that clear, Joe Biden and the Democrats let 15 million people in here illegally, tens of thousands of murderers, hundreds of thousands of violent criminals, and now that same party wants to defund the Agency that is charged with deporting these monsters.

So we have a choice. I choose to support law enforcement. I am not going to go along with the idea that we are going to give the Democrats the ability to kneecap ICE so they can get amnesty by lack of enforcement.

And with that, Mr. President, I renew my motion.

If he has already objected, the objection has been heard.

Mr. President, I object.

My colleague from Connecticut just talked about this minutes ago. Minutes ago, the very same Senator objected to Coast Guard funding. So here we are again with political gamesmanship and grandstanding for some clip to show that you actually want to fund the Coast Guard. Meanwhile, you just voted against the Coast Guard.

The Democrats do not want to fund the Coast Guard because they are so hell-bent on defunding ICE.

And the term ``out of control'' was used. Do you know what is out of control? The language being used on this floor to describe Federal law enforcement--Nazis, the Gestapo. This is very dangerous. This is very dangerous.

And I will tell you that I have great appreciation for the men and women who go into very dangerous situations to deport criminals who want to rape and murder our fellow citizens. I appreciate them.

So five reasons why I cannot go along with this scam: Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, Kayla Hamilton, Dacara Thompson, and Hallie Helgeson--all Americans--all murdered by illegal aliens released by Democrats, instead of being deported.

So what else is out of control other than the Democrats' language? These leftist activist organizations that are creating the chaos in the streets.

There are nine sanctuary jurisdictions in this country that, actually, probably are significant. In those nine sanctuary jurisdictions, there is a 590-percent increase for anti-ICE attacks.

They are creating conditions with the hope that they get some viral moment. This is dangerous. This is out of control.

One more thing that is out of control: sanctuary jurisdictions at large.

And for the friends watching at home, what is a sanctuary jurisdiction that the Democrats are so proud of? They are local jurisdictions that will not tell Federal law enforcement when an illegal alien rapist or murderer is being released from prison.

It happened--by the way, the new Virginia Governor just pledged that she won't do it.

The monster Abdul Jalloh, from Sierra Leone, with 30 priors, who stabbed to death a fellow citizen of ours--she has pledged to not let ICE know when that monster is released from prison.

That is who they are. That is what we are fighting against, and we are not going to allow them to kneecap our Federal law enforcement from getting these monsters out of our country.

They just voted against this. They just voted against the Coast Guard. They just voted against the Secret Service. They just voted against TSA.

They want to undermine law enforcement and give blanket amnesty to 15 million people here illegally. That is the truth.

And with that, Mr. President, I object.

Mr. President, I object.

Mr. President, I share these concerns about the safety and security of the American people. I spent my career working in national security and counterterrorism, and these are exactly the reasons we need to make sure that we are taking the steps that we can agree upon.

There is no doubt. As we have had debate after debate this week, we know we are far apart still when it comes to immigration, when it comes to that aspect of the Department of Homeland Security, but what the American people know and what every family has to deal with is that you can also think through what it is that you do agree on and try to move forward with that and try to then further focus in on the issues where there are disagreements. I think that is a very pragmatic idea, a pragmatic approach, that the American people can understand.

So, in just a few moments, I will ask my colleagues to pass commonsense legislation to fund the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA. I know maybe the American people are not as familiar with this aspect of the Department of Homeland Security, but I think that they understand that we are in a different moment now than we were just

a couple of weeks ago when these negotiations began. We are now a nation at war. We are a nation at war because of Donald Trump's moving forward without the approval of this body, which the Constitution outlines, in terms of the approval of a declaration of war. So we find ourselves in a time when our servicemembers are in harm's way. Several have already lost their lives. With our diplomatic posts, as a former State Department officer, I am worried about our Embassies.

Then, here at home, there is concern about our own homeland security. When the President was asked about this, should we be concerned about threats to our homeland, he said: ``I guess [so].''

That is what he said.

He said: ``I guess [so].'' He said that people may die; that that is what happens in war.

I am finding that absolutely unacceptable for a Commander in Chief to talk about homeland threats with that level of blase attitude.

We all know that Iran has the capability of launching cyber security attacks on the United States. We have seen it before, and we had seen this administration, even before this war, take the steps to gut this Agency that is in charge of so much of the critical infrastructure and cyber security protections. They have forced out and reassigned personnel to other missions. They have attempted to slash the budget. The Agency, CISA, has lost one-third of its workforce under this administration and the abysmal leadership of Secretary Noem.

As I said on the floor yesterday, we are at war, and we need to understand that we should take all of the steps available to be able to push forward on the tools that we need. When it comes to immigration, we know that the Republicans pushed forward on the funding for that through the reconciliation bill last year. So let us make sure that the rest of the Department of Homeland Security, including this incredibly important aspect of CISA, is able to step up at this dangerous time.

I hope the Republicans will join us and make good on that obligation today by funding CISA. That is why I am asking my colleagues to pass this bill to fund our cyber security workers and ensure that we have the resources in place to counter these threats. That should be something that, I hope, all of us can agree on. Now is the time to put the politics aside and focus on them.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4074, submitted earlier today, and that would fund CISA; that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I will say we are ready to negotiate. We are the ones that want to be at the table here. But look at what has happened since negotiations have begun. Since we started this several weeks ago, we are again now at war. We are at war because the President refused to engage with this body, refused to engage with Congress about that, finding ourselves with these types of threats.

Since negotiations began, we now have a Department of Homeland Security Secretary fired. The Department is in chaos right now. How are we to understand what roles are going to be coming next, what this administration is going to be doing next, when they cannot even get their own Department in order?

So, yes, we are going to continue to push. And as I said, we have still large disagreements. And I am as concerned with what is happening in Iran--I am as concerned about that here because we have about 30 percent of the casualties that we face in Iran, with this attack and war with Iran--we saw that number, about 30 percent of that number in Minnesota. Two American citizens killed in Minnesota, still no formal, independent investigation at the level that is needed. Still no answers.

Still no assurances about what comes next.

So that is why we have got to move forward, fund CISA, fund these other elements of the Department of Homeland Security that can keep our country safe.

I yield the floor.

Reserving the right to object.

We have been having this debate over a series of motions here over the last hour-plus.

First of all, a status quo position for CBP and ICE is not acceptable. We have seen the violations of people's civil rights across the country for the better part of this last year. Last year alone, it was the deadliest year for detainees in ICE custody. And calendar year to date, we are on track to surpass that by a lot. So, no, the status quo is not acceptable.

For the other Departments and Agencies--TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA, CISA, et cetera--why settle for 2 weeks? We should fund them for the balance of the Federal fiscal year. I think we will have an additional motion to that effect in a minute.

But on the motion currently before us, Mr. President, I object.

Mr. President, in the few minutes that we have left before the scheduled vote, I do want to make things abundantly clear to the American people who are watching at home. Democrats are here trying to reopen and pay the employees of TSA, members of the Coast Guard, folks who work at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and, of course, FEMA. That is right.

Democrats are trying to address the issues of security lines at airports and protect Americans from cyber attacks. We want to pay the brave women and men of the Coast Guard and to help Americans rebuild after disasters. And Republicans are blocking these efforts one after another.

The question that is holding us all up, folks, is whether or not we, in this process, should hold ICE and CBP accountable with the same basic standards that apply to just about every other law enforcement agency in the country at the State level and at the local level-- reforms that my colleague from Oklahoma said were commonsense.

I am glad to hear that from the Republican side of the aisle. So let's incorporate that into Federal statute. But they refuse to do so thus far.

Let's remember, ICE and CBP already have billions and billions of additional dollars from the Republican's so-called Big Beautiful Bill last year. So ICE and CBP are in zero danger of running out of money.

Who is at danger of running out of money? It is TSA. It is the Coast Guard. It is CISA. And it is FEMA. And so that is why Democrats have put these series of motions forward.

Now, in a minute here, my colleague from California Senator Schiff will ask for unanimous consent to pass a bill that we introduced together to pay the critical FEMA employees and sustain their essential operations for the rest of the year because we know how natural disasters act. It is not a matter of if; it is a matter of when the next one will strike. And whether it is a hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake, or a flood, we know it is coming. We just don't know where it is coming. And the Federal Government has an obligation to the American people to be ready to act on a moment's notice.

So let's give FEMA the funding they need.

I will defer now to my colleague from California.

Mr. President, I just heard the minority leader come to the floor of the U.S. Senate and say: What the Democrats want to do is peel apart the Department of Homeland Security--a Department that was set up in this Nation after the attacks of 9/11, the attacks that struck the home city of the minority leader, took down the Twin Towers.

This Department of Homeland Security was set up specifically to protect our Nation. Multiple components were put together to protect America, the American people.

And what are the Democrats doing today? They are coming to the floor to peel it apart and say: Oh, no, we are not interested in protecting the border. Oh, no, we are not interested in making sure illegal immigrant criminals are taken out of the country.

No, that is not what they are doing. They are coming and saying: We are going to just take this part or that part.

This is a comprehensive plan for the Department of Homeland Security to protect our Nation. That is what we are seeing here today. That is why they are here.

Our cyber security is under attack, our people are under attack, our Nation is under attack, and we need to defend ourselves. We need a full Department of Homeland Security, not what we are going to see in the next hour, which is ``Oh, no, let's fund this little part. No, let's fund this little part. No, let's fund this little part,'' as they don't want to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

They say: Well, hey, the Department of Homeland Security is here to guard our coast. We have the Coast Guard in there. We have FEMA for emergency management of Federal problems. We have our cyber security-- where, today, one-third of those people are working and not getting paid and two-thirds today, right this very moment, are furloughed, and that seems to be fine with the Democrats. They don't seem to care because they are so committed to the illegal immigrants who are criminals and in this country, let in by Joe Biden and them. Over 10 million flooded into the country during the last 4 years. They are so beholden and attached to the far-left component of this Nation that they don't care about everybody else.

We have had terrorist attacks right here in the homeland--two in the last 2 weeks. So we are going to stand here, and we are going to listen to this little unanimous consent agreement and that one at a time when our homeland is under attack.

All warning lights are flashing red, and they want to peel apart piece by piece the Department of Homeland Security--a comprehensive Department of our government to protect the American people--because they want to stand with illegal immigrant criminals.

I yield the floor.

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) and the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran).

Thank you, Senator Murphy.

I want to start off as the ranking member on the U.S. Coast Guard Subcommittee, and I stand here today, first of all, to acknowledge your leadership and to acknowledge the fact

that it is surprising, I think, to most Americans that when we can get agreement on 90 percent of something, we don't act on that 90 percent. We have an opportunity right now.

And, again, as ranking member of the Coast Guard Subcommittee, we know that the Coast Guard keeps our Nation safe in times of peace, but also in times of war. Even wars that weren't brought to Congress or that have no strategy or exit strategy, they do their job.

From protecting our ports, to helping our communities with search and rescue operations--the Coast Guard is critical to our Nation's national security and safety. They patrol over 4.5 million square miles of ocean. They protect over 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline. They secure over 26,000 miles of commercial waterways and ensure the safety of over 360 ports, 3,700 marine terminals, and 25,000 miles of navigable channels. The men and women of the Coast Guard of the United States dedicate their lives to protecting the largest system of ports, waterways, and coastal seas in the world.

And right now--right now--over 42,000 Active-Duty servicemembers are uncertain about whether they will receive their next paycheck, and nearly 10,000 civilians who support their critical work are going without pay right now. Their next paychecks should actually be hitting their accounts in a couple of days, which is why what we do here today is so vital.

I had the privilege of visiting the Sector Delaware Bay last summer, and I met the coasties stationed there, and I got to hear firsthand how deeply connected they are to our mission, to our safety, to our economy, and our national security. And it helped clarify how immensely important that we must take care of the coasties at home so that they can serve our country with confidence at sea.

Again, right now, we are neglecting our duty. Politics aside, the Coast Guard has a job to do, and we have an opportunity to do something about it.

Our colleagues asked us for more weeks. We got 2 weeks in the beginning. We are now weeks and weeks and weeks from those 2 weeks.

The best way that we can support our Coast Guard men and women is to pay them. And while we, as Democrats, fight to address a broken Agency that we know of as ICE, we have to recognize and pay our Coast Guard's men and women.

So, Senator Murphy, do you agree that our colleagues across the aisle should join us in paying our Coast Guard men and women without delay?