Gary Peters

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, spoke on the Senate floor to urge his Republican colleagues to support legislation that would ensure Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees are paid while lawmakers continue negotiating needed, commonsense reforms to DHS’ immigration enforcement operations.

The bill would pay federal workers at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Coast Guard, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and other critical agencies. The bill would not fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which already received increased funding from Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill.

“We want to fund the Coast Guard, TSA, CISA. That will happen today out of the Senate as long as my Republican colleagues do not object,” Peters said. “And if they object, it will send a very clear signal that they are not interested in opening up TSA at our airports, FEMA for natural disasters, or CISA, protecting us from cyber threats.”

“It is unacceptable. We need to make sure that they get paid and the resources to protect us… If my colleagues on the Republican side object and we’re hit with a cyberattack and we’re not fully prepared, they own that. Not Democrats,” Peters continued. “We are saying move this bill. We all agree that has to be done.”