Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) threatened Sunday to defund the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until certain changes are made.
Roy told host Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday” that Congress should withhold funding from the two agencies over what he characterized as the Biden administration’s “weaponization” of the Justice Department and for “leaving the border exposed.”
“And I can tell you right now for all my colleagues, I will not vote for a continuing resolution or any funding for DHS or DOJ if we don’t get changes to both,” Roy said. “I want the border secure. I want DOJ restored to following the rule of law, and we should use the power of the purse as James Madison wrote in Federalist 58: It’s the most powerful weapon against an over-tyrannical executive branch that we see unfold right now before us.”
When pressed further on how law enforcement agencies will be able to do their jobs if Congress defunds them, Roy explained that he does not want Congress to approve a “blank check” without President Biden laying out a plan to fix the Justice Department and secure the border.
“Well, it’s not about taking money away from it,” he said. “It’s about saying you’re not going to get a blank check on September 30 without the president coming to the table and coming down to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue and sitting down and saying, ‘OK, here’s what we’re going to do to restore the Department of Justice, come down and say here’s what we’re going to do to secure the border.'”
He also called on the Biden administration to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings because they did so in federal cases involving former President Trump.
“Let’s actually put a special counsel in charge of what’s going on right now with the Biden investigation instead of just leaving it to the politicals to not actually pursue the facts,” he said. “We can demand that because we hold the power of the purse.”
Updated 1:50 p.m.