Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told Newsmax on Friday that Democrats are undermining a core party value by allowing middle-class federal workers to go without pay during the Department of Homeland Security funding standoff, arguing the impasse is punishing Transportation Security Administration employees without advancing immigration policy changes.
On "The Record With Greta Van Susteren," Fetterman said he regularly speaks with TSA workers while traveling and argued their pay makes them part of the middle class now caught in a political fight over DHS funding.
"Can you imagine going for weeks, weeks, weeks without a paycheck?" Fetterman said. "For me as a Democrat, you are violating a kind of a core value of hurting the middle class."
The funding lapse at the Department of Homeland Security began Feb. 14 after Congress was unable to reach an agreement.
The Senate failed again on March 12 to resolve the impasse and reopen the department.
Since then, TSA officers have missed full paychecks, absenteeism has increased at major airports, and officials have cautioned that disruptions could escalate if the stalemate persists.
Fetterman said TSA employees make about $50,000 a year and described them as "solid middle class."
He argued that the dispute over DHS funding is being wrongly tied to broader Democratic demands regarding methods of enforcing immigration law.
"You can want to reform ICE. That's reasonable now, but it [shutting down DHS] has no impact on that directly," he said. "It has nothing to do with that.
"All the kinds of security, not just TSA, all of DHS is shut down. And that's also our cybersecurity agency, that's another part of it. Now, the two premier kinds of nations that use those tools, that's China and Iran. And right now, too, why are we keeping this closed?"
He added, "I was the only Democrat through this entire thing to refuse to shut our government down."
Fetterman tied his argument to broader public safety concerns and said Democrats should move to reopen the department rather than prolong the fight.
"For me, the Democrats are just afraid of their base to just tell them, hey, we're going to do the right thing, we're going to reopen this," he said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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