3.25.26 Weekly Press Conference

Good morning. Solo today, Vice Chair Liu, his father passed away recently and so he is with his family and our thoughts continue to be with him. So I'm operating without a safety net here, so please be gentle. Good morning. We're just three months into 2026 and Donald Trump has wreaked havoc on America and abroad. Our country is deep in yet another endless Middle East war. Gas prices are skyrocketing, TSA agents aren't getting paid, American travelers are waiting in record-breaking lines, ICE is brutalizing our communities, and hardworking families are being forced to make difficult financial decisions on whether they pay for groceries or gas or medications. And now the Trump administration is reportedly asking for $200 billion in order to fund this war, but he won't spend a dime to bring down costs for healthcare here at home. The American people want healthcare, not warfare. They elected Donald Trump because they truly believed he would keep his promise to lower their costs on day one, end all wars, and make our communities safe. Instead, he has been actively driving up costs at the pump and grocery store and unleashed out-of-control ICE agents across the country to terrorize and detain children and kill them. And the worst part is that it doesn't have to be this way. Democrats have put forward a proposal that would fund key components of the Department of Homeland Security, including TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA, while we negotiate common-sense reforms to ICE. Donald Trump doubled down on his harmful agenda and said he will only support a shutdown and paying our TSA workers if his partisan voter suppression bill is passed. The American people are worse off than they are fed up. In Congress, we are the people's representatives, and it's time for Republicans to start acting like it. It's time for us Republicans to join us to fund Homeland Security and put an end to the chaos. The American people will be watching. Questions? Nick? It's been reported that some members of the caucus are going to meet this week, a meeting over in the Senate with David Gritt on DHS funding. Does this undercut the caucus position? No, members are going to have conversations about what the path is. We've been incredibly clear that the easiest path is to fund the critical components of Homeland Security, which includes TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard. There are important components within the Secret Service that are funded within Homeland Security. Those are the important pieces that should be funded. Democrats have supported that, Rosa DeLauro's discharge petition. I've stood at this podium for weeks and told you all that this was an opportunity and a path out. We even see this reflected in Senator Kennedy saying that it's Donald Trump who decided not to go down this road. Ted Cruz has said publicly that we need to support and fund the TSA and the components of Homeland Security that I've talked about. I think any time our members can have conversations with Senators to impart the importance of that, I think it's helpful. Michael? Some of that looked offset. I'm curious if you think that some of the programs that were affected in the previous reconciliation bill last year would be up for cuts again, Medicaid, you know, SNAP. Just what are your general thoughts on the fact that we could be heading down another reconciliation battle? Have House Democrats had that discussion yet, kind of where you all at when it comes to reconciliation 2.0? There's multiple steps. Thanks for the question. There's multiple steps to this reconciliation process. First is passing a budget, right, that articulates where these cuts come from, and then each committee of jurisdiction will have the opportunity to weigh in, just as we saw previously. And just flashback to last year when we said loud and clear, Republicans are going to cut Medicaid. That is their path to providing tax cuts to the rich. And Steve Scalise goes down on the House floor and he's waving this budget document and he's saying, you know, we didn't say we were cutting Medicaid at all. Nowhere in this document does it say we're going to cut Medicaid. Well, the guidance it gave to Energy and Commerce clearly left no other plan other than to cut Medicaid. And we saw that unfold in the weeks ahead. All that to say is Republicans will do and say anything they can in the moment to get through the day to fund their priorities. Last year it was about, you know, billionaires and the rich getting more resources and eliminating taxes for corporations, and this year it's going to be about the SAVE Act, a funding award that no one's asking for, and it will come at the expense of important and critical priorities that the American public utilizes. And I'm going to venture to say that health care is going to be included, and supplemental nutrition programs that Americans rely on, that those are likely. And I say that only because that continues to be the well that Republicans go to when they're looking for offsets. But Republicans have to get on the same page. You know, Lindsey Graham and Jody Arrington saying this is going to happen doesn't necessarily make it happen. Jason Smith and other members in the Republican conference have said that this isn't going to happen or is a tough lift. So we'll see. But a budget is a reflection of your values, and we look forward to seeing the budget that Republicans put forward to offset billions in war and what that means to the American people. Maeve? Thank you. Congressman Sheila Terpilis-McCormick is going to have a rare public ethics hearing tomorrow. I wanted to get your opinion on that. And if there is some sort of recommendation that Terpilis-McCormick be expelled from the House, do you think the Democrats would be willing to accept that if that is the recommendation? We'll see what the Ethics Committee, what happens in the Ethics Committee. I'm not going to prejudge the outcome that they arrive to. I respect the members of the Ethics Committee and the work that they have to do. This is obviously a unique and unprecedented hearing that will be in public. In the past, the Department of Justice has asked the Ethics Committee to stand down when they are looking at items. That was not done here. You'd have to ask them as to why that change in policy and practice. But we believe that Representative Terpilis-McCormick has an opportunity to defend herself both from the allegations here under the dome as well as those in a courtroom. After the conclusion of those, we will see what happens and we'll have conversations with our colleagues on what it looks like. But I'm not going to prejudge what it looks like ahead of time. Max? Nick asked, there are a lot of moderates in your caucus who are getting pressure from Republicans. What is your advice to those front-line Democrats who are targeted politically over this DHS spending vote? What are you telling them? Yeah. What we're telling all of our colleagues, this isn't about moderates, front-liners, you know, tough seat. What we're telling all of our colleagues is, look, we have a solution in place. You signed a discharge petition that allows you to tell your communities that you want to fund TSA agents. By the way, the administration is funding the priorities that they choose to fund. You know, let's ask what percentage of the Coast Guard and FEMA individuals are funded. The administration has the money and they are prioritizing paying departments and individuals that they want to. So clearly they are prioritizing that they don't want to pay TSA agents. We know that the administration, that Homeland Security, received billions of dollars, over $150 billion through reconciliation. The president is choosing to leave TSA agents out in the cold while paying FEMA, Coast Guard, and other critical services that DHS has. So, you know, the question for the public is, you know, what is important? What do we value here? We value TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA. We value all of these individuals who are doing this hard work and we want to fund them. And we want to prioritize doing that quickly if, just as I said a couple weeks ago, if the Republican majority would put that bill up, we would support it. And so I understand that in some airports, you know, they're experiencing huge TSA delays. The contrast of ICE agents being deployed to some of these airports, ICE agents by the way being paid, and just watching TSA agents, unpaid, do their work is pretty striking and incredibly unfortunate. These ICE agents aren't even sure what they're doing in these positions at these airports. But that is the chaos that the Trump administration wants and they are intentionally doing this to TSA agents. We have a solution. We have a plan. Unfortunately, the president wants to attach the SAVE Act and make that the priority, the SAVE Republicans Act, to make that the priority rather than coming to the table and discussing the importance of funding Homeland Security. It's a good question for our Florida members. And clearly, what Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans put forward is something that we're paying attention to. But overwhelmingly, in the competitive elections that have had, competitive special elections over the past 12 months where Democrats have outperformed, not just outperformed two or three points, outperformed 12, 14, in this case, 20-point swing, I think, in this seat. By the way, this is the president's state representative. This is the individual who is representing him as a resident at Mar-a-Lago. And oh, by the way, he voted by mail, something he's trying to ban around the country. But it's convenient for him to do it, so he did it. But this just sends a resounding message, not just to Floridans, but to Republicans around the country, that the American people are fed up. They're fed up with their costs going up, and the president and this administration and Republicans writ large not doing anything to help them. They would rather spend billions of dollars on a war that they didn't ask for to put U.S. service members in harm's way, rather than addressing the issues that they care about, housing, healthcare. Those are the things that we hear about back home, and I imagine that that's what dominated the mindset of voters in Florida for these special elections. Tyler? Thank you, sir. For the past few days, we're now on our second protracted shutdown of at least part of the government for this Congress. Recesses were usually good motivators to get folks on the same page and strike deals. Is there something different about this Congress that makes it harder for members to get on the same page on key funding items or other compromises? Is there something different, harder to work with the other side here? What is the cause of this? I think the Congress has changed over the years. I think members have become hardened in their positions, and some of the redistricting has created brighter blue and brighter red districts, and maybe there are fewer members who are willing to find that middle. But quite honestly, I think two answers. My default here, Tyler, is to answer your question, and I think two things come to mind. One is the President only has a passing relationship with the truth. He has an inability to work with Congress. He wants to be an authoritarian. He wants to make every decision and to not make us part of it. He doesn't want to treat us as a co-equal branch of government. I think that's the first piece, is the President doesn't tell the truth. The second is our Republican colleagues' inability to point to the first thing, and that's an unfortunate reality. Fewer and fewer members are willing to say in public, on the record, that the President's wrong, we need a new strategy, we didn't have a pretext to go to war, there was no imminent threat, the American people are suffering. They just won't say that, and they won't admit that their own policies and bills have made Americans' lives difficult, more difficult than when the President was first sworn in. So I think that makes it a little more difficult. Each one of us as members has relationships on the other side of the aisle, and we try to find a way to work through things, but I think that there's some bigger pieces at play that make it more difficult. Mike? I think our Democratic colleagues are having conversations, we're having conversations with each other, we're finding out more about the President's lack of strategy on the war, and so I think we're making significant progress. Ranking Member Meeks guides the decision and the timeline as to when that measure, when we will invoke privilege to force a vote, so he'd be the better person to ask about that, but I think we're making progress. But look, this isn't, unlike Republicans who continue to put up the same DHS bill every week, the only thing they changed, by the way, back to, sorry Mike, back to Max's question, the only thing they changed is they put Juan Sestamani's name on it, oh by the way, Juan Sestamani is an endangered Republican who wants to show that he's doing something back home, rather than Tom Cole carrying this, or Homeland Security Appropriations Committee member, so that's the difference, that's what's changed here, Mike, and so I think the unfortunate part is Republicans, you know, inability to craft a strategy and to bring the American people, the American public, and our allies along, and so we're going to continue to have these conversations, and I know we have some recess planned, but I would imagine shortly after the recess we'll be in a position to make some announcements on that. ...reiterated his suggestion that he would send and deploy the National Guard to airports nationwide, so I am wondering if this will move the needle in any way with regards to how the progress of these... ...to exacerbate the pain that individuals at airports are seeing on a daily basis. Last question. If a deal is not reached soon on DHS or ICE, Republicans are starting to talk about using reconciliation for ICE, so what is the red line for ICE reforms in this current round of negotiations, and is your caucus prepared for none of those reforms to happen if this goes to reconciliation? We have engaged in good faith offers, we have sent very clearly the reforms that we want needed. Democrats don't believe in funding a rogue ICE agency without reform. That is our position. That means within the Homeland Security bill, that means within a reconciliation, that means you don't get additional funding unless you stop terrorizing communities, separating children, and killing U.S. citizens. That's our red line. Now, we've got a lot of strategies and solutions on how to get there, and we're having conversations about that, but whatever vehicle Republicans choose to fund ICE needs to have reform. And if it doesn't have reform, it's not going to get votes on our side. Now, I can't speak to how Senate Democrats feel on this, but I can speak to how House Democrats feel on it, and that is overwhelmingly the sentiment that we have. So, we look forward to finding a resolution, we look forward and are hopeful that the administration decides to engage in real reform efforts under the new Secretary, and we hope in the meantime that the administration chooses to fund TSA agents and other critical services that DHS provides, rather than intentionally leaving them out in the cold. Thank you so much.