GOP Sen. Johnson: I’d Support Piecemeal DHS Funding in Exchange for Bills Addressing Future Shutdowns

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “The Bottom Line,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) stated that he would accept piecemeal DHS funding for things like TSA and FEMA if they attached legislation to ensure employees get paid during a shutdown or if there was legislation to permanently eliminate shutdowns attached.

Co-host Brian Brenberg asked, “Your Democratic colleagues are trying to go the route of saying, hey, we want to fund TSA, we want to fund FEMA, we want to fund all of these things, we just don’t want to deal with CBP and ICE right now, so why don’t we do this in a piecemeal manner? Now, I know Republicans have said, we’re not doing it that way, and I understand why, but is there any world in which piecemeal becomes a viable option, or is that always going to be dead on arrival?”

Johnson answered, “Well, I’d actually accept that as long as they would attach it to the Shutdown Fairness Act so we never have to face this again, or even better yet, the Eliminate Shutdown[s] Act. Those are two pieces of legislation that I’ve sponsored that would eliminate shutdowns for all time, or at least, if we were in a shutdown, would pay people who are going to get paid anyway, but pay them in time so they’re not having to run second jobs to feed their family.”

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