DHS funding fight threatens Secret Service, FEMA
The way things are going in Congress, the Department of Homeland Security could be lucky if it gets just enough funding next week so it doesnât have to shut its doors. But in reality, a continuing resolution is just about the worst way that Congress could solve the funding problem, short of actually shutting the department down. Story Continued Below Customs and Border Protection wouldnât be able to upgrade its mobile video systems to patrol the Rio Grande Valley. The Federal Emergency Management Agency wouldnât be able to write the grants that pay the salaries of state and local emergency management officials. It might also have to cancel a series of training workshops next month for first responders. And the 2016 presidential candidates have a stake in this, too: the Secret Service wonât be able to train the security details that are supposed to protect them on the campaign trail. It wonât be able to start training the agents who will be assigned to President Barack Obama when he leaves office, either. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has been warning Capitol Hill of the downsides of a continuing resolution, telling lawmakers that short-term funding wonât solve his problems. A continuing resolution wouldnât include any of the money the department is supposed to get for new initiatives â it just keeps last yearâs funding on autopilot. And it canât issue the grants that help pay for emergency response and equipment upgrades, as well as the ones that fund surveillance cameras to look for terrorists in New York. With the departmentâs funding scheduled to run out after Feb. 27, there is no constructive solution that is anywhere close to happening. The White House and Republican leaders arenât talking to each other about a deal. And a âcleanâ funding bill isnât in the cards either; even if House Speaker John Boehner wanted to bring one up, Republicans say there arenât enough votes to pass it, even with Democratsâ help. That leaves the non-solution â a short-term continuing resolution â as the only solution that stands a chance. Itâs also the only one that Congress could pass quickly. Once lawmakers return next week, the House and the Senate will only have four legislative days to solve the problem, not nearly enough time to solve their bitter disagreements over the Republican efforts to block Obamaâs immigration executive actions â a set of sweeping directives that have been temporarily halted by a federal judge in Texas. If Congress canât do any better than a series of continuing resolutions, the damage will mount quickly. The Secret Service wonât have the $21 million it needs to train the security agents for the 2016 campaign and purchase new vehicles and equipment, or the $4 million for the training of Obamaâs post-White House security detail, according to spokesman Ed Donovan. And it wonât get the $25 million it has been promised to make the changes an advisory panel recommended after last yearâs security breach at the White House, including 85 more agents to guard Obama and 200 new uniformed officers to protect other facilities. Thereâs no way to know how many presidential candidates the Secret Service will have to protect, Donovan says â thatâs a decision that will be made by Johnson in consultation with the top congressional leaders. But it has to be ready to guard as many as 10 candidates, he said, and âwe canât just throw them out there on the campaign trail.â Customs and Border Patrol wouldnât have the $90 million it needs for mobile video equipment in the Rio Grande Valley â a response to the influx of unaccompanied immigrant children last year â or $12 million to upgrade the X-ray equipment for screening cargo at the ports, according to CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske. A short-term continuing resolution would also make it harder to deal with contractors, Kerlikowske said, because âthey donât know if you have funding for two or four months.â And FEMA officials say they wonât be able to issue the grants to pay for more than 1,800 firefighter positions throughout the country, replace aging fire vehicles, or provide new breathing gear for fire departments. Theyâre also warning that state and local emergency departments are under strain â and might have to start furloughing their own people â because FEMA hasnât been able to fund the Emergency Management Performance Grant, which pays for many of the local officialsâ salaries. Thereâs no guarantee that Congress will even get its act together long enough to pass a continuing resolution, now that some Republicans â including Boehner â are talking openly about letting the department shut down and blaming it on Senate Democrats. And publicly, at least, GOP leaders are happy to keep the staredown going. âThe pressure mounts on the Democrats too,â House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told POLITICO. âI think everyone in leadership has made it clear that weâve done our jobs.â