Video: Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10) Says Mike Johnson Could Call the House Back Today and “solve this thing”; “he’s choosing not to because of his own party’s politics.”

See below for video and highlights from Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10)’s appearance this morning on DC News Now.

• Rep. Subramanyam: “It’s hard to believe anything the president says right now.  They’ve been saying all along that they could accomplish all of their objectives without any form of ground troops, special forces.  And obviously, they’re starting to send ground troops into the region.  They said that they’d won the war the first week. They said it wasn’t a war, and they call it a war all the time now.  So they’re sending obviously mixed signals at best to Congess. From my perspective, we now need to narrow our objectives and figure out an off ramp for this war, because it is hurting the American people.  And the American people are literally paying for it at the gas pump and and through other things as well.  And they’re going to come back to Congress, it looks like, with a $200 billion request; that doesn’t sound like something that would mean the end of this war is near.”
•  Rep. Subramanyam: “Well, there’s a danger in ending the wrong way. Before we exit this war, we need to ensure that ships can get through the Strait of Hormuz. Now that the Houthis are in the war, we need to make sure that things can get through the Red Sea, which is another problem. And then we need to make sure that people in the Middle East, including our allies and American citizens, and certainly ou troops, are safe and they can safely leave the region. There’s a lot we need to accomplish between now and leaving, and it’s mostly just cleaning up messes that this war has created by starting it in the first place.”
• Rep. Subramanyam: “I have a lot of DHS folks in my district who work really hard to keep us safe, and they are upset. They’re upset at both parties, let’s be clear. But the only thing standing in the way of ending this shutdown is House Republicans. Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats came together to pass a bill unanimously. They sent it over to the House. And we in the House have still not voteded on that bill. Mike Johnson would not let it come up to the floor for a vote, because he knew it had the votes to pass and end the shutdown. But Mike Johnson and Republican leadership, along with the Freedom Caucus, the far-right Republicans, decided that they wanted to continue this shutdown because they wanted to grandstand over ICE, when ICE already has $43 billion, they have enough money to keep going for many years. And so I don’t understand why they wanted to continue this shutdown.   All Mike Johnson has to do is call us back. I’m obviously here in the region so I can come back in 30 minutes. But they need to call us back and put this to a vote and let the people decide and not have a continued shutdown at the airports and at other agencies that are critical, like Coast Guard and FEMA.”
• Rep. Subramanyam: “Yes, a discharge petition is certainly one way. The problem is Mike Johnson then left town along with the other House Republicans. So we would need at least three or four of them to sign the discharge petition. And then we need five legislative days, which these two weeks during spring break don’t count.  And so while they’re on vacation, we could have been solving this problem all along. Let’s remember, not everyone got what they wanted out of this Senate compromise. We didn’t get the ICE reforms that we wanted, for instance. But I’m willing to kick that can down the road a couple more weeks if it means passing DHS funding for all the other agencies. And like I mentioned, ICE already has a lot of funding. We just want them to not continue to terrorize and brutalize people in some of these communities, including American citizens.”
• Rep. Subramanyam:  “First of all, I’m wondering, why didn’t he do this [pay TSA workers] six weeks ago?  Second, he doesn’t technically have this power. You could probably challenge that in court and win. But you know, I want the TSA workers paid. So maybe willing to let that slide. But, you know, most of all, a lot of people at DHS do incredibly important work and they’re not getting paid regardless, the EO doesn’t cover them. If he’s going to do this, cover FEMA workers too, right? Cover Coast Guard. They’re doing critical work, especially right now. And why don’t we just get them all paid? That’s the easiest thing in the end. Why doesn’t Mike Johnson just let us vote on the Senate bill? Because I know there are more than 3 or 4 Republicans who would support. In fact, I bet half the Republican caucus would support it at this point. But it’s the other half, the extreme right of the Republican caucus, that owns Mike Johnson and is telling him they don’t want that vote.”
• Rep. Subramanyam: “Well, they would be crossing a line, because reconciliation is not meant for these processes. The parliamentarian would rule on that. And we’ll see what the parliamentarian in the Senate would say. I don’t think they would support that. But if Senate Republicans decide they want to trample over the rules and create a new precedent, then we will remember that when we’re in the majority and we have the Senate as Democrats.”
• Rep. Subramanyam: “I would absolutely want Mike Johnson to call everyone back right now, today, tomorrow, as soon as possible, and put the Senate bill to a vote so we can end the shutdown. And ICE and Border Patrol will continue because they have a ton of funding already. And we will just work on exactly what parameters we want when it comes to reining in ICE. And that’s a conversation we can continue to have. We’ve had some agreement on certain things, but we need to put the rest of DHS to a vote and fund it immediately. And I don’t know what Mike Johnson’s gonna do. He’s beholden to the president. He said that’s who he works for. And he’s beholden now to the far right wing of his caucus. That’s the other people he works for. And so, you know, he’s in a position where he can solve this thing and he’s choosing not to because of his own party’s politics.”