U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) is frustrated that Democrats in the U.S. Senate have refused to make a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
DHS is the lone major department that was not funded by Congress when they enacted the full-year FY2026 spending for most of the rest of government.
The U.S. House already passed a measure to get that part of the government open, but it has been stalled in the upper chamber. Democrat leaders are demanding radical reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) before they vote to fully open up the government.
Palmer discussed the issue Thursday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program.”
“Well, we’ve already funded it in house, and it’s, yeah, it’s up to the Senate to do this,” he explained. “And I mean, here we are with this issue that happened in the waters off Cuba yesterday, and our Coast Guard are having to defend our shores, and they’re not getting paid.”
Cuba is claiming its soldiers killed four people and wounded six others aboard a Florida-registered speed boat. They accused the vessel of entering Cuban waters and opening fire on the soldiers first, injuring one Cuban officer.
The congressman criticized the Democrats strategy on the shutdown because ICE is already funded.
“And I mean, when they first started this, they said they wanted to defund ice,” he argued. “Well, we funded ice, the one big, beautiful bill through 2029 I mean, they don’t even know what’s in the bill, so it just makes no sense that they would shut down the Department of Homeland Security.”
Palmer also thinks this is just another example of the opposing part doing whatever they can to undermine law enforcement in this country.
“And it’s another example, really, of their anti-law enforcement position,” he said. “They want to defund the police. Well, that didn’t work out so well for them. Now they want to defund ICE. Well, ICE is already funded. Now they’re going to defund the Coast Guard and even defunded FEMA at a time when states are still struggling with the winter storm issues.”
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 X @Yaffee
