June 09, 2026

Chairman Aguilar: While Republicans fail the American people in the majority, Democrats are stepping up in the minority.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar and Vice Chair Ted Lieu held a press conference calling out the reckless Republican budget for giving ICE and Border Patrol $70 billion but not a single cent to bring down costs for working families. You can watch the full press conference here and read the transcript below. 

CHAIRMAN AGUILAR: Good morning. After weeks of delay and missing Trump's own deadline, Republicans are finally putting the reckless reconciliation bill on the House floor, and let's talk about what's in it. A $70 billion blank check for ICE and Border Patrol with no strings attached. This comes after Republicans already cut healthcare and food assistance, and they've already given ICE $140 billion in their Big Ugly Bill. On top of that, this doesn't do a single thing to help Americans with the daily cost of living crisis that Republican policies have exacerbated along the way. Right now, Americans are struggling to fill up their gas tanks, buy groceries for their families and afford health insurance. Yet instead of addressing any of these concerns, Republicans are pouring your hard-earned tax dollars into an agency that has brutalized and terrorized communities and even killed American citizens. Republican leadership likes to talk a lot about common sense. But where is the common sense in giving this federal agency essentially unlimited funds without a single reform in place?

All the American people have asked, all Democrats have asked, is let's ensure that ICE conducts themselves like a local law enforcement agency with accountability, oversight, rules and common sense. This isn't a radical or extreme idea. It’s what the American people have asked for. I look forward to seeing how our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are going to vote. David Valadao, Gabe Evans, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ryan Mackenzie are going to be forced to explain their votes to waste tax dollars while failing to lower the costs that families are facing. And unlike Republicans, Democrats are actually delivering on things that matter most to Americans. We did it again last week when we passed another discharge petition, the fifth discharge petition through the House, and we're going to pass the sixth one this week. While Republicans fail the American people in the majority, Democrats are stepping up in the minority. If this is how we conduct ourselves and what we can accomplish now, just think what we can do when we are in the majority. Vice Chair Ted Lieu.

VICE CHAIR LIEU: Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. The President of the United States is not well. We can see it with our own eyes, he has tremendous difficulty staying awake on the job. Donald Trump has repeatedly fallen asleep at multiple cabinet meetings, at multiple White House events, at a Memorial Day ceremony and most recently at a very loud and raucous New York Knicks-San Antonio Spurs game last night. The White House needs to come clean to the American people. They need to explain why Donald Trump keeps going to the hospital, and why they keep giving him cognitive tests. The American people deserve the truth.

The truth is not something we're getting from the Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. We now have a screwworm outbreak in multiple states, including Texas and New Mexico. This is a parasite that can cause devastating losses to cattle, raising beef prices. The United States had eradicated this parasite for many, many, many years. And one reason is because we had federal funding for monitoring programs that, unfortunately, the Trump administration and the DOGE folks cut. What we learned from DOGE is that it was a massive failure, the people working on it were clueless, naive, arrogant and lazy. They made no effort to find out about the programs they were cutting, and they cut the very programs designed to prevent screwworm outbreaks. And now we have the Secretary of Agriculture blaming it on the Biden administration. If she cannot accept responsibility, then she needs to resign. The life cycle of a screwworm is about 14 to 54 days, depending on temperature and humidity. The Trump administration has been in office for over 500 days. This is on the Trump administration. They need to own up to it, and they need to apologize.

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