Lauren Underwood

On Thursday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) discussed the DHS shutdown and said that funding the agency piecemeal and using it as leverage “is not a best practice. You can see that on display. It’s terrible.”

Underwood said, “Well, on the Appropriations Committee, we certainly try to make sure that agencies have the resources that they need to execute their missions on behalf of the American people. And what we see now is that we have a Republican Party that is not willing to look at some harm that’s being done, a couple agencies, ICE, Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, that clearly need reform. And instead of really looking and tackling that issue, we have other agencies performing essential functions for the American people, essential safety functions, brave TSA officers, we have Coasties, Coast Guard, who are out in harm’s way every single day that are working without pay, showing up and doing their missions.”

Host Audie Cornish cut in to ask, “[D]oing it piecemeal, using it as political leverage, over time, does that just become damaging?”

Underwood answered, “This is not a best practice. You can see that on display. It’s terrible.”