ICYMI: HIRONO SAYS SENATE MUST RESIST 'MANUFACTURED CRISIS, POLITICAL GAMES'

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday Senator Mazie K. Hirono took to the Senate floor to continue to urge the House and Senate to come together to pass a clean appropriations bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Honolulu Civil Beat highlighted how Senator Hirono pressed that if DHS shuts down, the department’s 2,000 employees in Hawaii will be furloughed or forced as essential employees to continue working without pay.

Read the full piece below: 

Honolulu Civil Beat: Hirono Says Senate Must Resist ‘Manufactured Crisis, Political Games’

Democrats rallied for the third time this week to block a GOP Homeland Security bill they say harms Obama's immigration plans.

By Chad Blair

February 5, 2015

Mazie Hirono of Hawaii took to the floor of the U.S. Senate on Thursday to demand that her colleagues fund the Department of Homeland Security with a “clean” bill and “resist the temptation to govern through manufactured crises and political games.”

“Our national security is at stake. Surely my colleagues remember when DHS was created in a direct response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001,” Hirono said, according to her office. “Of the nearly 200,000 DHS employees across the country, 2,000 are based in Hawaii.”

The senator added, “Nobody will get paid if DHS shuts down. Some will be furloughed, while many others will be forced as essential employees to continue showing up to work without pay. We count on the Coast Guard, on TSA, on Customs, and on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which are all part of DHS, to be on the job, each and every day.”

Hirono made her remarks on the same day that she and fellow Democrats succeeded in once again blocking the GOP’s legislation funding DHS but also, in the view of Democrats, harming President Barack Obama’s immigration plans. Funding for DHS expires Feb. 27.

Thursday’s vote was 52-47 and heavily along partisan lines. Brian Schatz of Hawaii again voted “nay” on the GOP measure, which needed 60 votes to advance.