(DCNF)—Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said he’s ready to break from the party line and urged Congress to reopen the federal government.
The government remains shut down after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and most Democrats blocked the Republican spending bill early Wednesday. Speaking on “The Source With Kaitlan Collins,” Johnson said he would break from the party line and listed several reasons why Congress must act to reopen the government.
“I’m going to break from the party line here on this. I’m a Democrat. I’m with John Fetterman and Angus King. The problem I see here is that to pass the budget, it needs 60 votes in the Senate. And what is happening each year now, and what I fear is going to happen in the future, is the minority party wants to link that to some other very, very important issue,” Johnson said.
“Affordable health care is critical, obviously, but I fear that this is going to happen every year, every September, October, November. The most basic function of Congress is to fund the government, turn the lights on, keep the government working so that the three million people who are public servants are able to do what they do to serve all the rest of us.”
Johnson said he was motivated to keep the agency open after hearing from a Transportation Security Administration worker who was battling stage four cancer and feared missing her paycheck.
“I’m sympathetic to the workers who are caught up in the middle of this political fight and being used as a political football,” Johnson said. “Ten years ago, Republicans wanted to shut down DHS over immigration, and the motivation for me was a worker, a lot of these people do live paycheck to paycheck, a TSA worker from West Orange, N.J. came to me and said, ‘Mr. Secretary, I have stage four cancer, I need my paycheck for my co-pays.’ And that was my motivation.”
When asked directly if Democrats should vote to reopen the government, Johnson didn’t hesitate.
“I believe that Congress should vote to reopen the government,” Johnson said.
Senate Democrats voted again to keep the government shuttered, rejecting a bipartisan spending bill last week that would have reopened federal operations for the fifth time. While three Democratic caucus members sided with Republicans, the rest of the party held the line, denying the bill the 60 votes needed to advance.
Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said the Democrats are prolonging the shutdown by demanding the return of millions in what he described as wasteful foreign projects. He said lawmakers had already removed the spending from the budget, but the party’s far-left flank threatened to block any deal unless the funds were restored.
Kennedy cited a list of rejected items Democrats want reinstated, including $4 million for LGBTQ initiatives in the Balkans and Uganda, $3.6 million for dance workshops for male sex workers in Haiti, and $6 million for Palestinian media subsidies.
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