House Homeland Security Committee Chair Demands Funding for DHS After Iran Strikes

The chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security said Saturday that it’s urgent to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown following U.S. strikes on Iran.

The lawmaker, Rep. Andrew Garbarino, said Congress “cannot afford delays.” The agency, which plays a key role in the federal government’s response to security threats, entered its third week of a funding lapse on Saturday.

“As we face a heightened threat landscape, it is more important now than ever that we fully fund the Department of Homeland Security,” Garbarino said in a statement. “We must ensure DHS is operating at maximum readiness to prevent and respond to threats against our homeland.”

The Senate failed to pass a measure by Feb. 14 to fully fund DHS, which oversees an expansive set of agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, ICE, Customs and Border Protection, Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard. Most Democrats blocked the House-passed funding bill over a lack of reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. There’s been little urgency to end the shutdown, particularly since many of DHS’s core functions are still operating despite the lapse in funding.

“I am in direct coordination with our federal intelligence and law enforcement partners as we continue to closely monitor and thwart any potential threats to the homeland,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While many of DHS’s components have limited their operations, many of its critical functions and priorities are running. ICE and CBP are still functioning because of large sums of money allocated through the reconciliation package last summer, and FEMA is still providing aid through its Disaster Relief Fund, although its balance is rapidly depleting.

Even as Garbarino acknowledged a changed security landscape, the Republicans of his committee did not suggest they’re willing to compromise with Democrats on the funding bill. They called on X for Democrats to stop blocking long-term DHS funding already passed by House Republicans.

Sen. Rick Scott, a member of the Senate’s Homeland Security, Armed Services, and Foreign Relations committees, also put the onus on Democrats, despite the fact that Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and called the agency shutdown “dangerous.”

“President Trump is putting Americans first by taking decisive action in Iran to protect the United States and stop the evil Ayatollah from getting a nuclear weapon,” Scott said in a statement. “Democrats, meanwhile, have forced the very agency charged with keeping us safe here at home to shut down, and the hardworking Americans at DHS to work without pay.”

Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican member of Homeland Security and Armed Services, blamed Democrats for “playing politics.”

Ernst said the shutdown is “opening up our homeland to unnecessary vulnerabilities.” She urged Democrats to “end their partisan games, so DHS is fully functional and our citizens are protected from the regime and its proxies who chant death to America.”

Sen. Rand Paul, Garbarino’s Senate counterpart as chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, posted on X that he “opposes another Presidential war.”

Paul’s office did not immediately respond to a request from NOTUS about how the DHS shutdown affects national security.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in a statement that President Donald Trump’s attack lacks a “clear strategy” and congressional approval, but he did not comment specifically on the role of DHS funding in countering national security threats arising from the U.S. conflict with Iran. He also acknowledged a different landscape.

“We are more vulnerable to ensuing terrorism attacks today because of Trump’s reckless, inflammatory actions. I am deeply concerned about the administration’s attention to possible threats and its ability to protect Americans,” Thompson said.

So far, most Republican leaders in the House and Senate have commended the strikes as a response to decades of threats from Iran.

Democrats are calling for Congress to act on another matter: an emergency war powers vote. Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Ro Khanna, leaders of the war powers push in the House and Senate, called on Congress to immediately reconvene and vote on their resolutions.