Rep. Dan Meuser said Thursday on Newsmax that he would support a short-term continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown, accusing Senate Democrats of refusing to consider what he described as a serious offer from the White House.
"I would certainly support another couple of weeks, three weeks, four weeks CR," the Pennsylvania Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
However, he warned that without an agreement, "FEMA is going to lose its funding. CBP [Customs and Border Protection] is not going to be paid. The Coast Guard is not going to be paid. TSA is not going to be paid."
Meuser said a proposal was delivered to Senate Democrat leadership from the White House, but is not being taken up.
"The point behind this is let's deliberate, let's get this right," he said. "Let's gain cooperation. Let's do some common-sense provisions within this new bill that they're pushing for, and let's not shut down the government."
He pointed to border enforcement and cooperation with federal authorities as key provisions.
"We're good with the body cams, we're good with the added training," Meuser said.
"But we also need cooperation when an illegal criminal is in jail," he added. "Don't make the groups have to go out and find them because these sanctuary cities let them go. Let's go into the jail and get them there."
Turning to election legislation, Meuser said he was "outraged" that no House Democrats supported the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register and identification to vote.
"I really believed, again, they put politics well above policy and people, but I believed we'd get 20, 30, 40 Democrats because they knew it was going to pass," he said.
Meuser said most Americans already expect to show identification at the polls.
"Most people think that is required. When you go to vote, you hand your ID almost automatically," he said.
"So they're calling this all kinds of names, discrediting it, and that's all it is... they're voting to allow illegals to vote. That's what their vote was yesterday.
"And the American people need to understand it. It's unbelievable."
But, he added, "Clearly, we now know without a doubt the reason that our border has been open under the Biden administration was simply to gain leverage in elections."
Meuser also addressed Wednesday's contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing featuring Attorney General Pam Bondi, dismissing Democrat criticism of the handling of late financier Jeffrey Epstein's documents as political maneuvering.
"Obviously, this is, again, political chicanery on their part, very sadly, because there are some serious issues here," he said. "For four years under [former Attorney General] Merrick Garland, they were silent on it. All of a sudden it becomes an issue.
"They saw it was something that intrigued the American public, so they're trying to use it as leverage," Meuser said.
He agreed that the documents "should be unredacted" if anything illegal is shown, but also argued that Democrats are "proving once again their main focus is to get [President] Donald Trump because nothing was done about this," he said.
"Epstein died in 2019," said Meuser. "They had literally four years during the Biden administration. They had the FBI, they had the DOJ, and they did nothing."
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