The Senate passed legislation on Mar. 27 to reopen the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and restore funding to agencies including the Transportation Security Administration, Coast Guard, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, and Federal Emergency Management Agency. The bill now moves to the House for further consideration.
The passage of this bill comes after a shutdown lasting about six weeks, affecting critical federal operations related to national security and public safety. Restoring funding is seen as essential for resuming full activities at these agencies.
U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer said in a statement, “For the last 40 days, we’ve been voting a lot to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. My Republican colleagues and I voted to restore funding 15 times and the Democrats, in that same time, repeatedly put politics ahead of the safety and security of the American people—the highest priority of the federal government. As Americans stood in long airport lines in some cases for many hours, the Democrats continued to block fully funding homeland security. Instead of standing with the hardworking TSA officers and their families, the Coast Guard, Border Patrol—they chose to instead prioritize policies that protect violent criminal illegal aliens. That’s who they put their priority in—unbelievable to me.”
Cramer also said he hopes for quick action by House lawmakers: “I certainly hope the House can pass the bill as soon as possible so that we can get the department back to full strength.” He credited former President Donald Trump with taking unilateral action during this period: “Fortunately, Donald Trump took unilateral action on behalf of the American people, on behalf of the federal employees at TSA, and on behalf of the travel industry.”
Cramer serves North Dakotans by assisting them with federal agencies when issues arise or information is needed according to his official website. He grew up in Kindred, North Dakota; earned degrees from Concordia College and University of Mary; served three terms as North Dakota’s at-large representative before joining the Senate; sits on committees covering Environment and Public Works, Veterans’ Affairs, Banking Housing and Urban Affairs; ran on an energy policy platform; was first from his state on Armed Services Committee; has five children with his wife Kris; and enjoys time with eight grandchildren according to his official website.
Looking forward after Senate passage Cramer said: “Now we’ll come back and immediately Republicans will go to work to pass hopefully a very large homeland security budget reconciliation without a single Democrat having to help us because clearly they don’t have …the guts… But Democrats brought us to brink… I just hope we can put it all together.”
