U.S. Rep. Dale Strong (R-Huntsville) made it clear Wednesday that he’s not happy with some of his Republican colleagues in the U.S. Senate who left town during a partial government shutdown.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is still the lone major agency that hasn’t been funded by Congress. They enacted the full-year FY2026 spending for most of the rest of government earlier this year.
Last week, Republicans in the Senate passed a bill to fund most of DHS, with the exception of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of Customs and Border Patrol. They plan to approve money for ICE and CBP in a separate reconciliation package in the near future.
“There’s no way that the people the fifth district that sent me to Washington, DC to represent them, there’s no way that they want me to cut funding to Customs and Border Patrol and ICE,” Strong said Wednesday on “The Rightside” with Allison Sinclair and Amie Beth Shaver.
“What that would do, in essence, would set up the flooding of the southern border. Again, we’ve already got 15 million in this country that’s just absolutely against everything America stands for. But what this would do was create the next, the next opportunity for that to happen.”
Republicans in the House blocked the measure last week, extending the shutdown.
“And I’ve never been prouder of [Speaker of the House] Mike Johnson for standing up and saying, ‘Enough, enough.’ It’s time for Republicans to be Republicans and do exactly what we told the people we were going to do,” Strong exclaimed. “Fund the government. Fund CBP, ICE, the Homeland Security bill. Don’t partially fund it. Fund 100% of it, just like the House did. And I’ll promise you this right here, I can’t wait to get back to DC so we can get on the floor and expose who’s a part of this foolishness going on in America.”
The congressman then directed some criticism toward U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was spotted in Orlando last weekend, for taking a vacation while DHS remained unfunded.
“I can’t help that some are down at Disney World doing some foolish stuff there,” Strong said. “Our country demands better right now.”
Despite some of the initial pushback, Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, (R-S.D.) announced Wednesday they will move forward with the two-track approach senators unanimously passed at the end of last week.
As of Thursday, the Senate has again sent its partial DHS funding plan back to the House where leaders adjourned without taking action after rejecting the measure last week.
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
