President Obama used a session with the nation’s governors Monday to warn of the negative economic repercussions if Congress doesn’t resolve a funding standoff for the Department of Homeland Security by the end of the week.
“Unless Congress acts, one week from now, more than 100,000 [Homeland Security] employees will show up to work without being paid,” he told the group of governors gathered at the White House.
“These are folks who, if they don’t have a paycheck … it will have a direct impact on your economy and our national security,” he continued. “As you governors know, we can’t play politics with our national security.”
Obama also thanked the 13 states who have passed minimum wage laws, California for expanding paid leave for parents or those caring for elderly parents, and those states that agreed to expand Medicaid to millions of people.
“I think there’s a recognition that it makes sense,” he said of the Medicaid decisions. “Ohio Gov. [John] Kasich said it saves lives. There’s no doubt about it.”
On the Homeland Security spending fight, Republicans have tried to refute charges that failing to pass a spending bill for the department by the end of the month would jeopardize national security.
Most Homeland Security employees, including Border Patrol agents, airport security workers and the U.S. Coast Guard, will still show up for work but won’t receive a paycheck because they are considered “essential employees.”
The department will be forced to furlough an estimated 30,000 other nonessential employees who wouldn’t get paid until the budget showdown ends.
With four more days left to reach a deal, both sides appear to be digging in their heels and pointing at each other for holding the agency hostage.
House Republicans have passed a spending measure that would reverse Obama’s controversial executive action on immigration, but Senate Democrats have held it up on their side of the Capitol, arguing the language is a poison pill.
In the meantime, a federal judge in Texas last week ruled that the federal government cannot implement Obama’s executive action providing legal relief for more than 4 million illegal immigrants until a decision on a lawsuit filed by 26 states challenging the legality of the of move.
