'That Would Be Precedent-Breaking': Chris Murphy Presses Kristi Noem About Fund Usage

At today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) questioned DHS Sec. Kristi Noem.

Transcript

00:00that right now is being impounded, I mentioned it in my opening statement, is the Shelter and

00:04Services Program. I certainly understand that as a program that Republicans, unfortunately,

00:10have not supported, but it was a major element of the budget that we passed, and thus far,

00:18there are somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 million that you have not expended. Can you commit

00:22to this committee, understanding that you have the ability to decide how that money is spent and who

00:28gets that money within the parameters dictated by Congress, but can you commit to this committee

00:33that you are going to spend the money in the Shelter and Services account according to the

00:38authorization provided to you by Congress? Sir, we have followed authorizations and the law and how

00:45these dollars are being spent. We are not conducting any impoundment, and as you know, under the previous

00:50administration, the Shelter and Services Program was being used to facilitate illegal immigration

00:56and shelter for criminals in many areas, and so we are using those dollars to how they were intended

01:02by Congress when those dollars were put into that program. But you haven't spent really any of those

01:08dollars other than those that you've reprogrammed, so you know, I certainly understand that you do have

01:14a right to spend a little bit of time on review, but you do have to spend those dollars, and so can you

01:20commit to us that you are going to spend the dollars in the Shelter and Services Program on the

01:26functionalities and programmatic parameters authorized by Congress? We're going to follow the

01:33authorities that we have under the Department of Homeland Security and the administration

01:37for how Congress appropriates funds. Absolutely, we will follow what is authorized and what is

01:45the process for how those are traditionally spent? Madam Chair, my guess is that the administration is

01:51not going to spend any of the SSP dollars that by the end of the year those dollars will not be spent,

01:56and I raise this issue because I admit that this was a priority for Democrats and that money was included

02:04in the budget in exchange for other funds that were priorities for Republicans. If we now live in a world

02:12in which the administration spends down the accounts that were priorities for Republicans and does not

02:18spend down the priorities that were priorities for Democrats, I don't know how we do a budget. I don't

02:25actually know how we come to an agreement if we live in a world in which the administration doesn't spend

02:31the accounts that it doesn't believe in. That would be precedent breaking for this Congress, and so I raise

02:40this issue because I think it's very relevant to our work and I think it will make it virtually impossible

02:44for us to do a bipartisan budget if by the end of this fiscal year the 600 million dollars that are

02:51sitting in this account that are supposed to be used to treat migrants to this country humanely are not

02:56used. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Senator Murphy.