WASHINGTON, D.C. — The continued shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is a problem which grows by the day. U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito said she’s concerned, not only with the situation at the nation’s airports, but with all of the departments under the DHS umbrella.
“Things like Coast Guard which interdicts with drugs coming in off shore. They protect our shoreline and do a lot of rescue work. FEMA, we’re always just one day away from a disaster, but TSA I think is the most visible part,” said Capito in an appearance on MetroNews “Talkline.”
Capito said she’s unsure how the matter will finally be resolved. She said four Republican Senators visited the White House and got President Trump to agree to a measure which would fund all of the Homeland Security departments except ICE, which is seemingly what Democrat Senators were seeking. But even that concession wasn’t enough.
“We will remove $5 billion from this bill, it’s the money that goes to the enforcement and removal operations which we saw in Minneapolis. That’s a pretty big step and we were willing to go along with that, but they came back with you can’t just remove that, you’ve got to remove another $5 billion,” said Capito who like most of her GOP colleagues places the blame squarely on Democrats.
Capito believes the Democrats in the Senate have much bigger ambitions in this fight.
“The part of the investigations into drug cartels and drug trafficking and trafficking in people, I personally couldn’t believe they would want to defund that, but it’s basically about defunding law enforcement,” she said.
The impasse remains and the frustration, particularly at airports, is growing. TSA workers have now missed multiple paychecks and many are losing their homes, getting eviction notices, and living in cars in the most extreme cases. It promises to only get worse with word of a possible walk-out and mass resignations. Capito said travelers are also paying the price.
“The airports are packed with Spring Break and Easter families. It’s a travelling time and I’m concerned about that because it’s the most forward facing we see,” she explained.
“Everybody loses here. Politically, I’m not sure there’s a win for anybody here,” she said.