U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen said the partial government shutdown, now in its fifth day, is the only way to force Republicans to the negotiating table. By failing to fund the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] by a Feb. 13 deadline, FEMA, cybersecurity, the Coast Guard and TSA may see lapses in funding.
The target in leveraging DHS is reining in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement [ICE]. Democrats are calling for reforms, including mandatory use of body cameras and requiring agents to show their faces in the wake of back-to-back fatal shootings involving ICE and Customs and Border Patrol [CBP] agents in Minneapolis last month.
“The only way we’re going to be able to negotiate for ICE agents to take off their masks, that ICE agents will put on a camera, that ICE agents will have their name—if they really are going to be law enforcement—is if we negotiate,” Sorensen said during a visit to Bloomington this week.
“I am so proud that we are there to negotiate. We need the Republicans on the other side of the aisle to listen to their own constituents—to listen to the constituents who say, ‘I’ve had enough of this. You need to do what’s right.'
“It doesn’t mean that we stop law enforcement or that we don’t go after criminals, especially criminals who are in this country illegally,” Sorensen said. “We need to make sure that we secure our border. ICE and CBP need to go do their jobs on the border, not in our cities.”
But unlike other department agencies, ICE has access to $45 billion authorized by Congress in last summer’s tax cuts and spending bill. And this partial shutdown is on the heels of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, in which federal workers went 43 days without pay last fall.
“The people that I think of today back here close to home—it’s the TSA agents at Central Illinois Regional Airport,” Sorensen said. “I don’t see an end [to the shutdown] if Republicans don’t want to come and sit at the table and negotiate at all. And so, I guess my plea to listeners today is, if you’re traveling, please take extra special care with our TSA agents.”
Climate deregulation
Sorensen, a former meteorologist, said the Trump administration’s recent rollback on climate regulations curbing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles is evidence of “cognitive decline.
“Kids learn this in fifth grade today, that the climate is changing,” he said. “You go to any country around the world and you see more electric vehicles than you see gas-powered vehicles. Why is that? The rest of the world understands it.”
The President rescinded the Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment finding” that affirms greenhouse gases are harmful to the environment. The ruling was used as a basis for imposing federal climate regulations. Transportation is largest source of direct greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA.
The administration has additionally retreated on Biden-era incentives for electric vehicle [EV] makers like Rivian, which produces EVs in Normal.
“We need to be innovators in this country. We need to make sure that as we move forward, there’s going to be a transportation sector that isn’t polluting anymore, but also builds on the value we have here in McLean County with Rivian,” Sorensen said.
Year-round E15
Sorensen does support allowing high ethanol “E15” fuel to be sold during the summer, when the corn-based fuel is thought to be linked to increased smog production.
On this point, Sorensen, who sits on the House Committee on Agriculture, agrees with Republican U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, whose largely rural 17th Congressional District across Central Illinois borders Sorensen’s. The move would fulfill one of President Trump’s campaign promises.
Sorensen said increasing sales of E15, which blends conventional fuel with 15% ethanol, is good for Central Illinois farmers and the environment, by reducing reliance on gas and oil.
“Right now, the reason we don’t have it, is because of oil refineries and Big Oil, which is putting millions of dollars of lobbying into members of Congress,” he said. “We do need to make sure we are growing our energy here in the Midwest, because we’re really good at it.”
