Texas congressmen debate Homeland Security funding outside Austin’s airport

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The debate over how to fund the Department of Homeland Security spilled into the passenger drop-off area of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) when Democratic Congressman Greg Casar and Republican Senator John Cornyn publicly argued over different proposals.

Cornyn was scheduled to speak with reporters Monday morning after he delivered Whataburger to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents at Austin’s airport. TSA agents have been working without pay for a month because the federal government partially shutdown after Congress failed to pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the TSA.

AUS expects record-breaking spring travel as long wait times continue Monday morning

As reporters waited for Cornyn to pull up to the airport in the passenger drop-off area, Congressman Greg Casar, D-Texas, walked up to the cameras and began delivering remarks about the partial shutdown.

“I’m confused as to why Senator Cornyn would be here having a press conference at the airport about funding TSA, when it is him that has blocked the funding,” Casar said.

As Cornyn’s truck pulled up to the impromptu press conference, Casar said, “Senator Cornyn should put his money where his mouth is.”

Cornyn got out of the passenger side of the car and walked straight to Casar. “Why don’t you tell your Democrats to vote to pay these poor people,” Conryn asked Casar.

“Let’s do it,” Casar responded.

“No, you do it,” Cornyn said back.

The two then argued about which party was to blame for the partial government shutdown. Casar would like to fund only certain parts of DHS — including TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the U.S. Coast Guard — and continue negotiations to reform Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

But Cornyn said only funding parts of DHS is “not acceptable.” He argues the entire agency needs to be fully funded to protect Americans after recent attacks in various cities, including a shooting at Buford’s on Austin’s Sixth Street.

APD explains why there was no active shooter alert in Sixth Street tragedy

“How about all the terrorist attacks like we saw down on Sixth Street? You want those to continue,” Cornyn asked Casar. “These people are keeping us safe. Tell the Democrats to vote for funding the DHS.”

You can watch the full encounter here and at the top of this story:

Casar said he would like to see reforms with ICE before he agrees to funding the agency with billions of dollars. Some of those reforms include requiring ICE agents to remove masks from their face as they enforce immigration laws, and have mandatory identification of which agency they are with.

Casar said he would also like to see ICE agents required to get a warrant signed by a federal judge before entering private homes.

Cornyn said Democrats are the ones holding TSA agents “hostage.” He said he would only debate reforms to ICE and CBP after DHS was fully funded.

“We can have these debates endlessly, and we do, but saying that we’re not going to pay TSA, or ICE, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency until we get what we want is really a disgrace and something I think needs to be called out,” Cornyn said.

The argument played out in the same area where we saw long lines of passengers waiting to go through security checkpoints at the airport on Friday morning. Those same long lines returned on Monday morning on the same day the airport was expecting more than 30,000 people to travel through Austin.

Long security lines continue at AUS Airport Monday morning. (Todd Bailey/KXAN)

Long security lines continue at AUS Airport Monday morning. (Ava Brendgord/KXAN)

Cornyn said the cause of the long lines in Austin was not due to a lack of TSA staffing. The senator said he spoke with the head of TSA in Austin who told him nobody had called out sick or quit. When asked why there were long lines, Cornyn said it was a combination of Spring Break travel and South by Southwest in Austin.

Both Cornyn and Casar got on the same flight to go back to Washington D.C., where the debate will continue.

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Texas congressmen debate Homeland Security funding outside Austin’s airport

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