Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) said Americans expect leaders to take public safety seriously, in contrast to his votes of “Nay” on two House measures tied to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding during the longest shutdown of any U.S. federal agency in history.

In July 2025, Landsman said Americans “expect their leaders to be serious about keeping them safe” during a July interview with Rahm Emanuel on the New Democrat Coalition podcast, according to an exclusive clip shared with Breitbart News.

The comment comes after Landsman voted against two House Republican DHS funding bills earlier this year.

“If Greg Landsman was serious about keeping Ohioans safe, he wouldn’t purposely hold DHS funding hostage and force TSA workers to go weeks without pay. It’s hypocritical and reckless for Landsman to play politics with the hardworking men and women who work tirelessly to keep our country safe,” RNC Spokesman Hunter Lovell told Breitbart News.

The record 76-day Department of Homeland Security shutdown ended April 30, 2026, when Congress passed legislation funding key components including the Secret Service, TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard, and CISA, while leaving ICE and Border Patrol funding to a separate reconciliation effort. During the shutdown, a March 27 White House memorandum said more than 60,000 TSA employees — including roughly 50,000 officers — were not being paid, with nearly 500 leaving their jobs and airport security wait times stretching to three hours or more. 

As staffing shortages worsened, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were deployed to assist at airports with duties such as crowd control and ID checks, while a separate report found roughly 3,000 TSA agents failed to show up for work on a single day, further straining operations.

The issue has taken on new urgency after the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump and Republican officials at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, April, 25. Trump said a Secret Service agent was shot in his bulletproof vest during the confrontation with the suspect, who was taken into custody.

The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, allegedly wrote a manifesto planning to target Trump administration officials, attended a No Kings protest, and donated $25 through ActBlue earmarked for Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign. 

The department shutdown also coincided with multiple serious attacks inside the United States, including a deadly mass shooting in Austin and an attack at Temple Israel in Michigan. In Austin, a gunman opened fire on a crowd of mostly college students, killing three people and injuring 16 others, nine of whom were hospitalized. Authorities said the attacker was killed by police within minutes. The suspect wore clothing reading, “Property of Allah,” and investigators found Iran-related material at his residence.

In Michigan, a separate incident unfolded at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, where a vehicle was driven into the building and gunfire was exchanged with security. The attacker, who was identified as a Lebanese national who had become a U.S. citizen, died at the scene. No victims were reported among those inside the synagogue, though authorities initially responded to the situation as an active shooter event.

Ohio.News reported April 30 that Landsman said he does not believe former FBI Director James Comey’s Instagram post showing seashells arranged to read “86 47” was a threat to President Trump and called it “absurd.” Comey was indicted again over the post, and the Department of Justice is also pursuing a separate probe into alleged classified leaks.

Landsman represents Ohio’s First Congressional District, described as “one of the few flippable districts in the country,” and a key 2026 target for Republicans. Eric Conroy, an Air Force veteran and former intelligence officer endorsed by Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), is running to unseat him, calling it “a big race here nationally” and emphasizing that Republicans must win districts like this to “keep the House.”

Breitbart News previously reported that Landsman, as a Cincinnati city councilman, wrote a 2020 proposal to move $200,000 from the police budget to the Citizen Complaint Authority during a homicide spike; the city recorded a then-record 94 killings that year, surpassing its previous high of 88 in 2006. A local NBC affiliate called Landsman’s proposal “basically the definition of defunding.”