On Friday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “On Balance,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) said that he wants “nothing more” than for employees of agencies like TSA and FEMA to get paid, but defended not passing a clean bill to end the DHS shutdown and pay everyone by saying that Democrats “have made very clear what we want out of this DHS funding bill, and Republicans have not even entertained us.”
Subramanyam said, “We want to pay TSA. We actually put a bill forward to pay TSA employees and all employees except for –.”
After host Leland Vittert cut in, Subramanyam added, “We put forward a measure to actually fund DHS, and all we said is we want ICE tactics to change.” And “We want TSA, we want FEMA, all these agencies — I have employees of these folks in my district. I want nothing more than for them to be able to get paid.”
Vittert then asked, “If you want nothing more, then why not put through a clean bill to reopen DHS and pay everybody?”
Subramanyam answered, “We have made very clear what we want out of this DHS funding bill, and Republicans have not even entertained us. And it’s stuck in the Senate.”
Subramanyam added that government employees should be paid during shutdowns.
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