Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wants to shut down the government over Department of Homeland Security funding, but Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., told Newsmax it would all be a political show that would not even impact Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
"ICE will be minimally affected: They know this," Meuser told Tuesday's "Wake Up America."
"And it would be impossible for us to not have a partial government shutdown, or at least for a few days, if they try to pull a bill out of that package that we sent, six appropriations bills that were bipartisan.
"If they pulled that, we would have a government shutdown."
Schumer has vowed to force the DHS funding piece out of the omnibus passed by the House, which is not in session this week, but Democrats' stated intention of defunding ICE would not even work with this tactic, according to Meuser, because ICE was already funded in the Big Beautiful Bill.
"We would certainly come back in if that would get the job done, but it's not a perfect world, especially with Chuck Schumer in it and in the Senate," Meuser told co-hosts Marc Lotter and Sharla McBride.
"Look, what they're trying to do is defund ICE, right? So first of all, we funded ICE in the B-B-B, so the actions would be minimal."
But there would be impacts on Americans and federal workers not involved with DHS or ICE if the continuing resolution expires without the appropriations of the final six packages are not passed by Friday at midnight, he warned.
"This affects the Border Patrol; TSA wouldn't get paid again; air traffic control wouldn't get paid," he continued.
It is a political charade that is "bad for our country," said Meuser, who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, which is one of the remaining appropriations packages yet to pass the Senate.
"The Democrats are playing some politics, rather than trying to fix the problem, they go political," Meuser lamented. "And that's just wrong. It's not just a bad strategy. It's bad for our country.
"And it's bad for all the people that they pretend to be trying to help."
Democrats need to end the obstruction of immigration law enforcement and the Trump administration, Meuser concluded.
"Let's fix the problem, let's cooperate, let's work together," he said. "The president has extended all kinds of olive branches, all kinds of extensions."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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