Shaheen: DHS shutdown ‘reckless’

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) on Thursday warned that a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be “reckless” in the face of a string of recent terrorist attacks.

“Our nation is already on high alert for terror threats, after attacks in Sidney, Australia, and Ottawa, Canada, and in Paris. The Mall of America threat and the Brooklyn arrests reinforce the fact that we need our law enforcement community operating on all cylinders,” the New Hampshire Democrat said from the Senate floor. “Sadly, these aren’t isolated incidents.”

{mosads}The Senate on Wednesday moved toward passing a “clean” bill to fund the department. Under an agreement between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate will take up a House-passed bill to fund the department, but McConnell will strip the legislation of riders that would stop Obama’s deportation deferrals.

On the sideline of the weeks-long legislative stalemate over how to fund the department, terrorist group al-Shabaab called for attacks at malls across America, including the Mall of America in Minnesota. Shaheen said allowing the department to shut down would send the wrong message to terrorist groups and criminals.

“A shutdown of the department whose mission is to protect the citizens of this country is reckless and dangerous while we’re under threat of attack by terrorist groups,” Shaheen said. “What kind of message does it send to ISIS, to cyber criminals, to criminal drug gangs, if Congress can’t keep the Department of Homeland Security open?”

The timeline of a final Senate vote on the DHS bill is unclear. Shaheen said that “hopefully sometime today” the Senate will be able to pass a “clean” funding bill. But Reid warned Thursday morning that the process could stretch out through Sunday.