Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Sunday urged lawmakers to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and pay its employees, which has been in a shutdown for over a month.
Johnson, who served under former President Obama, said in an appearance on the "Cats Roundtable" radio show hosted by John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM that no one can tell employees to work "except for the United States government."
"We've got to stop with these funding fights," he continued. "It used to be annual. Now it's occurring several times a year, and I'm afraid it's only going to get worse unless somebody, through strong leadership, intervenes and says, 'Stop the madness.' And you can't punish the workers; it's not their fault."
Senate Democrats have held firm in not approving funding toward DHS. They and their House colleagues have argued that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a DHS sub-agency, needs to be reformed following its rollout of President Trump's deportation agenda and tactics used in detaining undocumented immigrants and American citizens.
Calls for reform intensified after two U.S. citizens were killed during federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis in January.
The former secretary urged lawmakers to no longer link "policy disagreements with funding the government. Separate the two."
"Go have the debate about masks, about judicial warrants versus administrative warrants, and a bunch of other things," Johnson said. "But decouple that from the funding and paying the workforce."
Johnson also advocated for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers. DHS reported Thursday that over 360 TSA officers have left the force since the start of the shutdown.
"They're there to look for bombs on the airplane you and your family are about to get on," he said. "So, there needs to be an appropriation to fund this. There are very few agencies of our government that are funded entirely by fees like, for example, the Postal Service."
Ninety percent of officers under TSA, ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other facets of DHS are deemed essential. TSA officers missed their first paycheck during the shutdown on Friday.
Senate Democrats blocked a bill on Friday to fund DHS. With no clear end in sight, some lawmakers have suggested other methods to stream funds back into the department.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Republicans should reopen the department using a two-step process by passing a bill that funds DHS but not ICE, then pass an ICE funding measure through a reconciliation bill.
"Now, that to me is a resolution to this," the senator said on C-SPAN's "Ceasefire." "I don't think my Democratic friends are going to like it, but that's what's going to happen if we do it that way."
The White House hopes to circumvent Democratic opposition. Border czar Tom Homan spoke with centrist Democrats on Thursday to help make a deal possible. Homan later told reporters that the White House will "keep talking" with those centrists until a deal is reached.