Washington — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned Friday that his company may undergo “critical” penalties if Congress fails to pass legislation funding federal agencies and averting a authorities shutdown within the subsequent few hours.
In an interview with “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Mayorkas mentioned many elements of the Department of Homeland Security could be affected by a lapse in funding, together with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), FEMA and Border Patrol.
The homeland safety chief added {that a} failure by lawmakers to go a stopgap spending invoice earlier than Saturday would additionally imply workers on the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office could be redirected to different elements of his division.
“The implications and the implications are critical, particularly in terms of Homeland Security,” Mayorkas mentioned.
He urged Congress to approve laws that may preserve authorities companies working earlier than midnight, when a short-term extension enacted in September will expire.
House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled earlier this week a legislative bundle negotiated with Democrats that may have prolonged authorities funding by way of March 14, offered greater than $100 billion in catastrophe help for states impacted by excessive climate occasions, and given members of Congress a pay elevate, amongst different provisions.
But the proposal was swiftly met with pushback from some conservative Republicans, who balked on the dimension and scope of the 1,550 web page deal. Crucially, it was additionally criticized by billionaire Elon Musk, an ally of President-elect Donald Trump, after which by the incoming president himself.
Trump and Musk torpedoed the package, with Musk taking to X, the social media platform he owns, to lambaste provisions of it. The president-elect additional upended negotiations over a funding deal when he referred to as on Republicans to address the debt limit — which is about to be reinstated Jan. 1 — of their plan.
Johnson unveiled a second measure Thursday, which might have funded the federal government for 3 months, suspended the nation’s borrowing restrict till January 2027 and offered $110 billion in catastrophe aid. The extra tailor-made laws, which Trump backed, additionally included well being care provisions, a one-year renewal of the farm invoice and funding for rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which collapsed in March.
But that bundle didn’t go the House with the required assist after it was opposed by most Democrats and greater than three dozen Republicans.
That defeat despatched Johnson and GOP leaders again to the drafting board, with the prospect of a shutdown rising with every passing hour. Republicans are actually discussing voting on three provisions of the bundle individually, sources accustomed to the matter advised CBS News: a clear extension of presidency funding; billions of {dollars} in catastrophe help; and help to farmers.
Mayorkas advised “Face the Nation” {that a} shutdown simply earlier than the vacations — when tens of hundreds of thousands of Americans are touring — would imply TSA staff at airports all through the nation could be pressured to work with out pay. However, they might seemingly obtain backpay after a shutdown ends, as has occurred earlier than after previous funding lapses.
“We’re going to have tens of hundreds of TSA staff working an extremely excessive quantity of passenger site visitors all through our airports throughout the nation, and they are going to be doing so holding the American public protected with out pay,” he mentioned.
The Homeland Security secretary additionally mentioned these impacted would come with U.S. Border Patrol brokers stationed alongside the U.S.-Mexico border.
“There are individuals in authorities service who’re dedicating their expertise and their vitality to the well-being of the American individuals, who depend on their paychecks to make ends meet, and it’s the vacation season, in any case, however our women and men on the border might be guarding the border of the United States at no pay if funding would not come by way of,” Mayorkas mentioned.
The $110 billion in catastrophe help that can seemingly be included in a spending deal consists of cash for FEMA, which has been responding to the hurricanes that devastated the southeast this fall.
Mayorkas mentioned that inaction by Congress would impression these states hit by the storms, together with North Carolina and Florida.
“What FEMA might want to do, one other vital impression of the failure to fund the federal authorities, is they may now must delay — they’re going to placed on pause sure contracts, sure tasks which can be truly repairing communities devastated by excessive climate occasions, by tornados, by hurricanes, by fires, and that can delay the rebuilding of communities and actually delay the power to ship for individuals who have suffered a lot,” he mentioned.
Mayorkas mentioned a shutdown occurring over the vacations would pressure the Department of Homeland Security to “make tough choices now to delay tasks.”
Lawmakers representing these storm-ravaged states have pushed for catastrophe aid to be included in any legislative bundle funding the federal government.
