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Scalise: Democrats Jeopardizing American Safety Over Personal Politics

  • 10.16
Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) to discuss the negative consequences of the Democrat Shutdown, including how it jeopardizes our homeland security. Leader Scalise emphasized that Chuck Schumer needs to stop placating his radical base in fear of AOC and prioritize Americans' safety instead. 
 
Click here or the image above to view Leader Scalise's full remarks. 

On the Democrat shutdown’s impact on homeland security:

“Well, you just heard a very stark, grim reality from Chairman Garbarino of what Chuck Schumer's shutdown is doing to our nation's ability to protect the homeland. The Department of Homeland Security is one of the most critical in terms of our ability to keep Americans safe here at home. They're doing incredible work. Fortunately, like Chairman Garbarino said, 95% of the employees are deemed essential, but they're on the job, not getting paid. But beyond that, he also pointed out, grants are not going out. The sharing of information on things like cybersecurity is not happening. These are really devastating consequences of Chuck Schumer's shutdown.”

On Chuck Schumer prioritizing his political future over the needs of hardworking Americans: 
 
“Nobody on the Democrat side can still articulate the reason why they're doing it beyond the obvious: The obvious reason is Chuck Schumer being scared for his political future. Scared from who? From AOC. Last night, as the Speaker mentioned, we saw two of the Democrat Party leaders, Bernie Sanders and AOC, at a forum, town hall, whatever you want to call it on CNN. They were laughing, they were guffawing like it's some game. In fact, when AOC was pressed to say, ‘What is it that you all are shutting the government down over?’ She couldn't even give an articulate answer. This is what she said, ‘I think we need to see ink on paper. I think we need to see legislation. I think we need to see these things passed on the floor of the House and Senate and signed by the President.’ Can anybody tell me what she's talking about? 

“I mean, they filed an alternative bill that everybody knows is not serious, a $1.5 trillion in new spending to do, among other things, to gut the rural hospital fund, the $50 billion that we put in place, the largest investment in rural hospitals in our country's history. They want to gut that to give free health care to illegals? That's not going to happen, and that's not a serious proposal. But in fact, when you get back to the heart of the question, and that is Chuck Schumer fighting for his political life in New York. They did ask AOC that question, ‘Are you going to primary Chuck Schumer?’ She laughed, and Bernie tried to bail her out of the question, but ultimately, she wouldn't give a direct response to that because that's really what this shutdown is about, is Chuck Schumer afraid of the AOC wing of the party primarying and beating him in New York. And so he's just concerned about his political future, and he's willing to jeopardize the lives of the American people, to jeopardize our homeland security abilities that Chairman Garbarino talked about.”


On the need for Senate Democrats to reopen the government:
 
These are serious consequences to real people – men and women in uniform, our federal workers that are not getting paid. All for what? For the gibberish you heard last night? They cannot articulate even what they want. We presented a clean CR that Chuck Schumer himself voted for in March. Very straightforward bill to fund the government and open it up, just to give us more time to negotiate our differences, very big differences that we have on policy, but we can't even get to those policy negotiations while Chuck Schumer is shutting down the government. 

“Senator Thune is doing a great job of trying to find a way to keep bringing the bills back up until one day, just five more senators on the Democrat side come to their senses and say they're willing to get the government back open so we can resume those negotiations. We stand ready. We've done our job in the House and we’re ready to get back to work. There's a lot of work stacking up. But while Chuck Schumer keeps the government shut down, it's hurting millions of real families across America.”

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