HOUSING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY ACT

HOUSING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY ACT

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 42 (Thursday, March 5, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 42 (Thursday, March 5, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S869-S871] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] HOUSING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY ACT The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington. Unanimous Consent Requests Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, it has been nearly 6 weeks--6 weeks-- since Alex Pretti was killed by masked Federal agents in broad daylight. It has been over 9 weeks since Renee Good was killed. And day after day, week after week, we have seen Americans brutalized by an out-of-control Department of Homeland Security--American citizens detained without cause, children ripped away from their families--as this administration treats them like political pawns in their sick games. We have seen peaceful protesters have their windows broken in by untrained and unidentifiable agents. And we have seen more people get hurt and even die because of how ICE and Border Patrol have been conducting themselves. In this entire time, Democrats have been pushing for serious reform to rein in these Agencies. For months, I have been at the table in good faith, pushing to secure basic accountability measures for ICE and Border Patrol. We are talking about standards local police already follow across the country. But even before Alex Pretti was shot and killed, Republicans and this White House, in particular, were telling us no on many basic reforms that would rein in ICE and CBP. We pushed for commonsense steps to make sure poorly trained agents and officers do not trample the basic rights of American citizens and kill them for no reason. And we pushed for steps to prevent these rogue Agencies from hiding the facts from the public and sweeping everything under the rug. But my colleagues across the aisle came back to us and said: Sorry, we cannot agree to those. Sometimes, my Republican colleagues were willing to take one modest step or another, which I appreciate, only to have to come back and say the White House was not willing to do that, and they had to hold the line. Or worse, they backtracked on measures we agreed to because of fears of what the White House would think. And now, here we find ourselves, nearly 6 weeks after Alex Pretti's brutal killing, and Republicans so far have continued to refuse to join us to pass any commonsense reforms to prevent more Americans from being hurt or even killed by masked Federal agents. As I have said many times, we are not asking for the Moon. We are asking for basic steps to protect Americans' constitutional rights and their safety. There is nothing new or controversial about body cameras or requiring identification be displayed. There is nothing extreme about insisting that ICE and Border Patrol follow the same standards as everyone else when it comes to use of force or needing a warrant before smashing in someone's door and dragging them away. These are common sense, and they are overwhelmingly popular. This is what the American people are demanding. But Republicans have decided they would rather shut down DHS than work with us to rein in these rogue Agencies. Republicans know full well that Democrats do want to ensure that TSA and CISA and FEMA and other important Agencies are funded. What Democrats have a problem with is funding rogue Agencies that are actively violating court orders and our civil rights and putting Americans' safety at risk. We cannot--we will not--cut a blank check for funding without reforms for ICE and Border Patrol. But if Republicans keep dragging their feet on those basic reforms we are asking for to protect people from those rogue Federal Agencies, then we should at least make sure that TSA agents get paid and FEMA is fully funded while those negotiations continue. [[Page S870]] TSA agents should not go without pay because Republicans refuse to agree to commonsense reforms instead of cutting another blank check for Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller to terrorize Americans. So, yes, let's pay our Coast Guard and our TSA. Let's replenish the Disaster Relief Fund and support other work that we overwhelmingly all agree on. I have a bill that I will offer in a moment that will do that. We can pass it right now, while pressing ahead with negotiations on ICE and Border Patrol to get basic reforms and accountability the American people want. All week, I have heard my colleagues on the other side of the aisle loudly say funding for DHS could not be more important in this moment. They have argued the instability this President has unleashed with his reckless war in Iran means Democrats must now fund DHS, including ICE, with no reforms at all. Now, there are some obvious problems with that argument, like the bizarre notion that because Trump started a reckless war with Iran, Democrats now must rush and cut a blank check; or the fact that the biggest threat to cyber and counterterrorism work at DHS seems to be Kristi Noem, who, by the way, over the last year, has gutted CISA and has taken folks off the terrorism beat to deport farmworkers with no criminal history. But put all that aside. I completely agree we should fund our cyber defense Agencies and FEMA and TSA. So I hope my Republican colleagues, who also believe--I know they do--that these Agencies are important and have been making the case they do need funding, will join with me today to get this bill passed while talks on ICE and Border Patrol and much needed reform and accountability measures can continue. With that, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of my bill, which is at the desk; that the bill be considered read three times and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? The Senator from Alabama. Mrs. BRITT. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I would like a moment to respond to my colleague from Washington. Democrats claim they are no longer for open borders. Yet they are now proposing to actually defund border security. Their proposal completely defunds Customs and Border Protection, including Border Patrol. Year over year, fentanyl deaths are down 24 percent. When you take overdoses of drug and fentanyl, that is down 24 percent because of the good work of CBP. But you want to defund that. Why? During the Biden administration, we had a record high of overdoses. Do you know what the American people said? They said: No more, no more. We are sick of the failed Biden border policies. We expect the people who are elected to represent us to actually do that. And there are moms and dads that are sitting around their kitchen table with a child who would not be here but for the courageous acts of CBP. But Democrats, today, say they want to defund them. Additionally, Democrats claim they are no longer the party of ``defund the police.'' Yet, today, they actually came here and asked to defund our law enforcement officers--our law enforcement officers that do a multitude of things. They are asking to defund HSI today. I heard the minority leader give a few remarks earlier. I was glad to see him down here. And he talked about the need to protect children. I wish that the other side of the aisle had that level of conviction over the last 4 years of the Biden administration, when we lost over 500,000 kids to Joe Biden's failed border policies, on which this side of the aisle said: Nothing can be done with it unless we pass a law. There are no reforms that can stop this flow further. There are no reforms. They actually did away with a DNA policy to make sure those kids went to someone that they were related to. Do you know what you are defunding? You are defunding an Agency that found 145 of those lost children. I agree with my colleague from Washington that children should matter. When you think about what else HSI does, they go find child predators. HSI is responsible for capturing these men, and, today, you all decided that is not worth funding. We are no longer going to go after people who are child pornographers, child predators, sex traffickers, drug traffickers. The worst of the worst is who HSI has found and gotten rid of, but, today, the Democrats came and said: We are not going to fund it. You are defunding ERO personnel, who removed these trained national cartel members and violent criminals, and you are defunding CBP personnel. Look, it is very clear, through their actions today, that they are still the party of open borders. They are still the party of ``defund the police''--now, actually, more than ever. You can't get more radical than that. That was actually rejected at the ballot box last November. But we know this couldn't come at a more dangerous time. We know, when we saw what happened in Austin, that there was an increased level of threat to our interior. We know that, in December 2025, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center testified that the United States had admitted over 18,000 known or suspected terrorists as part of Biden's parole program. When you are looking at this--when you are looking at the CBP and the fact that, in fiscal year 2025, they got 4,800 known terrorists or terrorist suspects at the border and, in fiscal year 2026, 3,950, we have work to do. We want to work with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. We want to find a pathway forward, but it takes actually having conversations and working together to be able to do that. This is completely moving us in the wrong direction. It would endanger the lives of our families and, ultimately, the safety of our Nation. Therefore, I object. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, unfortunately, what has become very clear is that Republicans would rather keep the entire DHS shut down than work with Democrats to prevent more Americans from being killed by masked agents. My Democratic colleagues and

Referenced legislation: HR4553