The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget is again the center of debate on Capitol Hill with a government shutdown looming. According to The Hill, there are deep divisions on spending priorities. Republicans are pushing for more dollars for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, given the border crisis, and Democrats are advocating pay equity for frontline screening officers at the Transportation Security Administration.
Aaron Roth, a former DHS senior executive and head of Federal Strategy at The Chertoff Group spoke to HNGN.com about a situation that has become all too routine. A portion of the interview is reprinted here:
“In an exclusive interview, HNGN sat down with Aaron Roth, former senior DHS executive in the Coast Guard and TSA, to discuss the spending bill. Regarding delays of this kind, Roth, who currently leads the Federal Strategy practice at The Chertoff Group, said that this has been a ‘consistent theme’ and that ‘these delays have become a tumor that we ‘ve all come to expect’. Roth lamented that the delays have become so prevalent that ‘DHS has gotten used to dealing with these issues’.
HNGN asked about the recent news that a White House aide commented that the Republicans want to ‘underfund DHS’. Roth disclosed that, this being an election year, Republicans could say that ‘we’ve been trying to turn the spigot off at the border for three years’. He went on to say that now that we’re in an election year, the White House and the Democrats want to ‘play ball’, so that they can get a ‘political win’.
Congress has until Friday to pass the legislation to prevent several parts of the government from losing funding or risk its first partial government shutdown in years.”
Read the full article here.
