Yesterday,U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) hosted a live telephone town hall event with tens of thousands of Oklahomans across the state. During the call, Senator Mullin highlighted the critical agencies within the Department of Homeland Security that will be affected by a Democrat Shutdown and where Oklahomans may see disruptions to services.
Senator Mullin also took questions on the SAVE America Act, changes to the filibuster, the National Guard, Iran and Venezuela, among other topics. Highlights can be seen in this social media video as well as below.
On the Democrats’ attempts to defund the already funded ICE:
“What the Democrats have planted their flag on is to try to defund the ICE agents, which is actually not possible because of the One Big, Beautiful Bill that we passed through reconciliation, it actually put mandatory funding in for Border Patrol agents and ICE agents to enforce our immigration policy for almost four years. And so there’s no way that the Democrats… can actually stop that funding because it was put into mandatory spending.”
On what is next if the Democrats block funds for the Department of Homeland Security:
“FEMA, with all the disasters that we have coming into Spring, especially with tornado season coming around the corner. FEMA grants, FEMA employees and the response time to disaster areas, it won’t be available.”
“Our Coast Guard, kind of important, especially the drug war we’re having right now and trying to keep these narco-boats from reaching our shores.”
“They also won’t be funding TSA agents. All of us that fly, like I did today, coming up from Oklahoma to D.C., our TSA agents, once again, won’t be getting paid if we don’t continue their funding.”
“And Secret Service won’t be funded, which, you know, there’s a little bit of a threat on the President’s life… but it’s kind of interesting that they’re willing to defund that and then you start talking about what’s going on with our air traffic controllers. There’s a certain amount of air traffic controllers that get paid through Department of Homeland Security, and some of their funding comes through that.”
On the impact a lapse in DHS funding may have on Oklahomans:
“DHS right now has like 260,000 employees trying to enforce the nation’s immigration policy, and it does affect every one of our airports, by the way. I was on the phone with the White House just today, talking about this… and how DHS is affected, because, you know, every airport gets its ratings based on security, and that’s why Tulsa is the Tulsa International Airport. A lot of people don’t realize that, Oklahoma City is a regional airport… The designation depends on the way that our security posture is, and what happens there.”
“So, Tulsa international will be hit a lot harder if the Department of Homeland Security funding lapses, and the Democrats end up refusing to fund it and doesn’t do a CR on it, that is a real concern. And Lisa, you’re seeing it… You see it there, you’re doing security at the airport for the maintenance and you see what’s going to happen if the funding runs out. But we’re fighting, and I think we’re in a pretty good spot.”
On the state of FEMA with the upcoming wildfire and storm season in Oklahoma:
“It’s not that FEMA has always been easy to work with, but we sure miss them when they’re gone, and in fact, most municipalities that’s had to deal with FEMA, know that they’re an absolute thorn in your side… But when they’re not there, we’re going to have a huge issue, because most of our emergency response teams in our counties… they lean heavy on reimbursements that come from FEMA.”
“If those reimbursements aren’t going to be able to come in. It’ll get extremely costly for the counties and for the municipalities. So, I really don’t think the Democrats are going to keep this fight up and shut down DHS. I think they’ll either do a CR or they’ll actually have cooler heads and just go ahead and do the Appropriation bill that, by the way, passed already with bipartisan support, until Chuck Schumer did his little temper tantrum. But either way, I think DHS is funded. I don’t think there will be a lapse in available funds. But who knows? This is called Washington, DC. You can’t predict common sense.”
On possible changes to the filibuster:
“We’re at an impasse where we can’t do anything and good governing is getting in the way of actually accomplishing stuff. And just like the Senate has addressed this issue in the past, it’s time for us to address this issue now. Because this isn’t about what’s right for America, what the Democrats are doing, it’s their actual hatred towards President Trump regardless if it is good for America, and we can’t get the economy moving.”
“The economy has made great strides where we were just, you know, twelve or thirteen months ago, to where we are today, but we should be able to move faster. And we need to get these EOs, which are executive orders, codified in law through legislation. And to do that, we need to probably do away with the filibuster at this point.”
“And listen, we want to do it because we want to govern. No one doubts that the Democrats are going to do it, but they’re going to do it to pack the courts. They’re going to do it to try to make Washington, D.C. a state.”
On the importance of Line-Item Appropriations:
“Every state in the Union operates off of line-item veto and line-item appropriations… And by the way, all the states are supposed to balance their budget. The only government that doesn’t operate that way is the United States.”
“The President should have line-item veto power… I don’t understand why we don’t do that, because you’re talking about being fiscally more responsible. If the President did line-item appropriations and we appropriated every line rather than bundling, because what we do is we bundle billions of dollars together, and if we give it to the President, the President has to accept the whole bundle or he vetoes the whole bundle, and it’s not right, it’s not how it should be done.”
