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Congressional Daily Record
This section captures a floor statement or debate entry. It mentions members such as Bill Cassidy.
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March 25, 2026
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Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextMr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, someone asked me today: Since Senate Democrats keep moving the goalpost on DHS funding, what kind of frustration is there among Republicans?
I replied: Ask the American people how frustrated they are.
This is the New Orleans Airport. These are the lines. At one point, it was out of the building and into the parking garage. That is on the second floor. They had to come through the parking garage, through the second floor, and down to the mezzanine level in order to get into this line.
checkpoint. At that point, people had missed their flights. You came to the airport 3 hours early, and you missed your flight after standing in that line.
Orleans—maybe a destination wedding, something for their family, and then they return to whatever State they are from, having a great time— call up the Senate Democrats who are opposing ending the shutdown.
over the weekend. You know, they have bills to pay. I am not quite sure what they are doing. It could be that they are driving for Uber or they are driving for Lyft. They are trying to pay their bills. That is the issue here.
By the way, it is not just TSA agents. It is the FEMA agents, the people who help process the claims to rebuild communities after natural disasters. It is the Coast Guard, the people that rescue you when your boat breaks down, the people who are in the boats protecting our naval ships—protecting our naval ships right now on deployment outside of Iran. It is the people protecting us from cyber attacks—the cyber attacks that are coming right now from Iran.
Now every time an offer is made, Democrats say: Nope. It is not quite there yet.
Now, put this in context. Republicans and Democrats negotiated a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security months ago. At some point, that deal was broken. They said: No, this is not good enough.
Security, at which point folks like TSA agents stopped getting paid and FEMA and Cybersecurity and Coast Guard, et cetera.
cameras. They said they wanted body cameras. I think they wanted $20 million. I am told the White House has offered over $100 million for body cameras.
No, now we want something different.
agreement. At some point, you have to decide that a line this long, inconveniencing that many Americans, and not paying TSA agents, FEMA, Coast Guard, and others, is wrong, and you have to accept a deal.
Now, maybe you don't. Clearly you don't. But at some point, you should consider the pain that you are exacting upon fellow Americans, upon people who are not getting paid for 6 weeks even though they have bills to pay.
whether it is TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard, or Cybersecurity. Let us just thank them. Let us just thank them for doing what they are able to do to protect us even though they have not been paid for 6 weeks.
FEMA. I would like the FEMA agents to be paid. Hurricane season starts in 10 weeks. In my State, in the gulf coast, the Atlantic coast, we know what that means. Planning should be taking place now in case a hurricane hits in 10 weeks. That planning is not taking place because people cannot go to work if their Department is shut down.
people how frustrated they are, and ask the people who are at the end, right where they would be getting checked in, how frustrated they are.
I ask my Democratic colleagues in the Senate to accept “yes” for an answer. If we have actually come to where you were, and you move back, and we have come forward still yet, and you move back once more, maybe at some point, you must examine your priorities. Is it to serve the American people? Is it to make sure that hard-working public servants are paid? Or is it to gain a political objective? I ask you, please, to put the American people first.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.