Murphy To Secretary Of Homeland Security Kristi Noem: Your Department Is Out Of Control
www.murphy.senate.gov

... "I say this with seriousness and respect, but your department is out of control," Murphy said. "You are spending like you don't have a budget. You are on the verge of running out of money for the fiscal year. You are illegally refusing to spend funds that have been authorized by this Congress and appropriated by this committee.

You are ignoring the immigration laws of this nation, implementing a brand-new immigration system that you have invented that has little relation to the statutes that you are required -- that you are commanded -- to follow as spelled out in your oath of office.

You are routinely violating the rights of immigrants who may not be citizens, but whether you like it or not, have constitutional and statutory rights when they reside in the United States.

Your agency acts as if laws don't matter, as if the election gave you some mandate to violate the Constitution and the laws passed by this Congress. It did not give you that mandate.

You act as if your disagreement with the law -- or even the public's disagreement with the law -- is relevant and gives you the ability to create your own law. It does not give you that ability."

Murphy explained how Noem's reckless spending of federal funds is going to bankrupt the Department while leaving the U.S. vulnerable to cyber-attacks and putting communities at greater risk for severe storm damage:

"You're on track to trigger the Anti-Deficiency Act. That means you are going to spend more money than you have been allocated by Congress. This is a rare occurrence, and it is wildly illegal. Your agency will be broke by July, over two months before the end of the fiscal year. You may not think that Congress has provided enough money to ICE, but the Constitution and the federal law doesn't allow you to spend more money than you've been given, or to invent money.

And this obsession with spending at the border, as the Chairwoman mentioned, has left the country unprotected elsewhere. The security threats to the United States are higher, not lower, than before Trump came to office. To fund the border, you have illegally gutted spending for cybersecurity.

As we speak, Russian and Chinese hackers are having a field day attacking our nation.

You have withdrawn funds for disaster prevention. Storms are going to kill more people in this country because of your illegal withholding of these funds.

Your myopia about the border, fueled by President Trump's prejudice against people who speak a different language, has shattered many of this country's most important defenses. ...

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