Jeh Johnson Calls DHS Funding ‘Imperative,’ Admits Being ‘A Little Frustrated’

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson spoke about the approaching deadline for Congress to approve funding for the department.

A Friday deadline looms, at which point if no agreement is reached, “the homeland security budget for this nation basically evaporates,” Johnson said on ABC’s This Week.

He called it “imperative” that a resolution be reached, adding that “I’ve spent a lot of time on Capitol Hill…talking to Democrats and Republicans about how critical it is, in these challenging times in particular, with the global terrorist threat, with the cybersecurity threat and with the harsh winter we’re facing right now that we have a budget for homeland security.”

Senate Democrats refuse to pass a funding bill that includes a Republican-sponsored amendment revoking President Obama’s immigration reforms.

“I’m a little frustrated, frankly, because when I talk to my friends on the Senate side, they say ‘go talk to the House,’ and when I talk to my friends on the House side, they say ‘it’s not me, I passed my bill, go talk to the Senate,'” Johnson said on This Week.

“My hope is that in the four working days they have this week, they’ll finally come together and do the right thing and pass an appropriations bill free and clear of any efforts to defund our executive actions.”

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