Speaker Johnson talks after House passes DHS funding bill

[0:00] Congress ending the record shattering DHS shutdown. We want to take you straight to Speaker Mike Johnson who's addressing reporters right now. Big priority for a lot of our members here in the chamber. And most importantly of all of all the things we got done this week we got the budget resolution passed. This is very very important because that will ensure that border security and immigration enforcement will continue today and well into the future despite Democrat attempts to reopen our borders and protect criminal illegal aliens. [0:30] from removal. The net result of passing our reconciliation bill is that ice and CBP are funded for three years and Democrats got absolutely nothing for their political charade and shenanigans out of that. We repeatedly offered in good faith I want to point out remind everybody to negotiate on funding these agencies but ultimately the sad and actually shocking truth is there's not a Democrat in the House or the Senate that believes border security and immigration enforcement should exist at all. By word and deed Democrats have [1:01] made clear their desire to defund both of those critical functions of our government. We also passed the FISA reauthorization to ensure that the administration is armed with the best possible intelligence to continue eliminating terrorists and defending our homeland. We pray that the Senate can now pass our FISA bill as quickly as possible and you know they're deliberating over that right now. Now I just want to say that sometimes the process around here is cumbersome. [1:31] that of the Senate and that form the last election in the state of the House, the House Republicans our House Republicans continue to deliver for the American people. We will continue to do that for the remainder of the year and that is a large reason why we are going to win the midterms so that the grownups can stay in charge here. Take a few questions. [1:39] large reason why we are going to win the midterms so that the grown-ups can stay in charge here. [1:44] Take a few questions. [1:44] Mr. Speaker, isn't this a solution on DHS days? [1:52] It couldn't, and here's why. You heard me trash the bill when it came over the first time because [1:56] it literally was drafted in the middle of the night. It was about two o'clock in the morning [1:59] when they came up with the final language, and it was haphazardly drafted. And what it would do [2:04] is, of course, orphan and leave out immigration enforcement and border patrol. If you might [2:10] remember, in 2024, the number one issue in the election was securing that border. House [2:15] Republicans did it. The Trump administration, the president did that. And Democrats are upset about [2:20] it. So they wanted to leave that out. They wanted to orphan these two critical agencies that are under [2:25] the umbrella of Homeland Security. I remind everybody on the Hill all the time, the Department [2:28] of Homeland Security is the third largest department of the federal government. It has critical [2:32] responsibilities. FEMA and the Secret Service and TSA and all these other agencies. But the [2:38] Democrats said, we'll do some of that. But we're not going to fund border security and we're [2:42] not going to fund immigration enforcement. That's absurd. And we threw a fit and we had [2:46] to. We held the Homeland Bill, the underlying funding bill, because we had to ensure that [2:51] they could not isolate and eliminate those two critical agencies. We are getting those done [2:56] now. We passed the resolution first. That was critically important for us to do to ensure [3:01] that we're going to protect the Homeland, even though Democrats are unwilling to do it. So now [3:04] that that box is checked, we're allowed then to proceed and go through with the rest of [3:08] it. This will relieve pressure from the Department of Homeland Security. Secretary Mullen, who I've [3:12] spoken to in the last couple of hours, will be greatly relieved. The president will. The [3:16] administration will. We were not going to have lines at TSA. Everybody will get their paychecks [3:19] now. We'll get moving forward. And then we will finish the work and finally get again [3:24] for three years with no crazy Democrat reforms. We will fund border patrol and immigration enforcement [3:29] as soon as we return for the work session when that bill is finalized. On FISA, Mr. Speaker. [3:34] What do you anticipate from the Senate? And are you concerned that whatever the Senate [3:39] sends over might be a problem over here? I'm not concerned. I hope that they're going [3:44] to do the right thing. Look, we sent over an author reauthorization that was with the minor [3:49] reforms and with the anti CBDC measure on it. These are very simple things that the vast majority [3:55] of Congress agrees with and they should get it done. They're running out of time. As you know, [3:59] it will expire tonight, the end of today. And so we're calling on them to do the job, pass [4:04] the House's bill and get this done. Check the last box of the week. [4:07] They're not going to take the House bill. Well, we're going to see. They don't seem [4:09] to have another alternative. We'll find out how that works. [4:11] Mr. Speaker. I don't know who you're quoting. Okay. So look, this is a, this is, they often [4:23] analogize legislating to making sausage. You don't want to see it made. And sometimes it's [4:27] a, it's an ugly process. Sometimes it's a long process. I've never broken my word to a single [4:32] person in this building. Nobody can tell you they can. There was a lot of emotion [4:34] and frustration yesterday because sometimes when you have a small margin, as we do, we're [4:39] currently working on a one vote, uh, written margin because of absences and the rest. And, [4:43] um, people have, you know, different ideas, different priorities about very contentious [4:48] pieces of legislation. The, the, the equations that we solved on legislation this week were [4:52] virtually impossible. Many of you said it couldn't be done, but we got it done because ultimately [4:57] we just use patience and frankly, prayer and we get a lot of people together and we, we [5:01] listen to their concerns and we try to try to get the disparate priorities handled. I've [5:06] never asked a colleague in the Republican party ever to violate a core principle, but sometimes [5:11] we have to give up on our preferences because we are in a large body on some of these bills. [5:17] Some of the ones that I just named for you, they're so complicated and so complex that you [5:22] literally had irreconcilable demands on either side of the house Republican conferences. So it [5:26] takes a long time to work through that and get people to consensus. But we do that patiently. [5:31] We do as we, as we must and we ultimately deliver. Don't doubt the house Republican majority. [5:37] We always deliver for the American people. We did it again in spite of the challenges and [5:41] we'll continue to do that. Thank you.