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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: As we consider how they vote, in the actual mechanisms

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Speaker 2: through which people can vote, what they would need to

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Speaker 2: provide to be able to exercise that key element of democracy.

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Speaker 2: That is something that is the subject of debate right

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Speaker 2: now on Capitol Hill, as Republican lawmakers are pushing various

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Speaker 2: pieces of legislation intended, as they say, to improve the

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Speaker 2: integrity of elections in America. One such effort is being

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Speaker 2: spearheaded by Congressman Brian Style of Wisconsin, the chair of

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Speaker 2: the House Administration Committee, who introduced the Mega Act, and

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Speaker 2: talk to us about what it's intended to achieve earlier

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Speaker 2: at this hour.

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Speaker 3: I think it's common sense that we should require, for example,

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Speaker 3: photo identification when an individual goes to the polls, I

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Speaker 3: have to do that. If you want a board an airplane,

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Speaker 3: you want to open a bank accounter, heck, you want

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Speaker 3: to buy a six pack of beer, you need to

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Speaker 3: show photo identification. So it's common sense, it's popular. This

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Speaker 3: is far from the takeover argument that some are attempting

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Speaker 3: to make. It's putting in baseline standards so that all

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Speaker 3: Americans have confidence our elections are being run accurately and fairly.

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Speaker 2: That's the chair of the House Administration Committee. We now

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Speaker 2: turn to its ranking member, Congressman Joe Morelli, the Democrat

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Speaker 2: from New York is here with us now on Bloomberg

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Speaker 2: TV and radio. So you just heard your colleagues argument there, Congressman,

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Speaker 2: and we appreciate you joining us.

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Speaker 4: What is your response, Well, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 5: Well, it would be one thing if there was any

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Speaker 5: degree of lack of confidence by Americans or there was

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Speaker 5: evidence of fraud in America.

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Speaker 4: None of that is true.

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Speaker 5: Actually, elections come off very well. Local and state election

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Speaker 5: officials do elections incredibly well. What this is really is

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Speaker 5: the chaos and recklessness of the Trump administration. Who the

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Speaker 5: president knows the American people are very, very frustrated and

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Speaker 5: angry at what's happening with the Department of Homeland Security

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Speaker 5: and ice on our city streets. They're very concerned about

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Speaker 5: the lack of affordability and how badly this economy is going.

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Speaker 5: Seventy percent of Americans think the economy is worse direction

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Speaker 5: than it was when Donald Trump became president.

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Speaker 4: This is really a misdirection.

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Speaker 5: It's a way, as the President has said, he says,

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Speaker 5: the quiet part out loud, a way to seize American elections,

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Speaker 5: to nationalize them, take that power away from the states,

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Speaker 5: and give voter data to the Department of Homeland Security.

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Speaker 5: I don't know if anybody in America who thinks it's

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Speaker 5: a good idea to give Secretary Nome access to private

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Speaker 5: information that you supply when you register to vote. So

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Speaker 5: I understand what my colleagues are saying, but this is

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Speaker 5: really a misdirection play, and it's very, very frightening because

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Speaker 5: Americans don't want their election and their midterms taken away

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Speaker 5: from them.

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Speaker 1: Well, Democrats are not on board here, right, so I'm

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Speaker 1: assuming this would have trouble passing the Senate when it

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Speaker 1: comes to getting sixty votes. But how would you respond

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Speaker 1: to what else? President Trump would say that Democrats want

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Speaker 1: illegal aliens to vote because they vote Democratic.

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Speaker 4: Well, look, the President has said this for hears.

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Speaker 5: He even said that Minnesota, which is very much in

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Speaker 5: the news these day, and they tried to blackmail Minnesota

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Speaker 5: into giving them the voter file for the Department of

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Speaker 5: Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. But the President

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Speaker 5: famously said I won Minnesota three times. I never get

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Speaker 5: credit for it.

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Speaker 4: The truth is the president denies election results.

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Speaker 5: He's done it around the twenty twenty elections, so far

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Speaker 5: as having his head of National Intelligence go at the

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Speaker 5: direction of the Department of Justice to seize ballots from

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Speaker 5: the twenty twenty election five years ago. It's like, get

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Speaker 5: over it, mister president. Illegal are people who are not

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Speaker 5: registered to vote or are non American citizens don't vote

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Speaker 5: in American elections against the law, and it's a felony

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Speaker 5: if you try to vote. So whenever you ask Republicans,

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Speaker 5: could you provide evidence that non citizens are voting?

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Speaker 4: No, we just have a feel.

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Speaker 5: Can you provide evidence that there's widespread voter fraud. No,

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Speaker 5: it's just a feeling we have. So you know, look,

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Speaker 5: these are solutions in search of problems. American elections are secure.

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Speaker 5: Trying to suggest they're not is only shaking the confidence,

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Speaker 5: trying to shake the confidence of American voters. We're not

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Speaker 5: going to tolerate it, and we're certainly not going to

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Speaker 5: let Donald Trump try to national line elections and take

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Speaker 5: them for his own. In twenty twenty six, in advance

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Speaker 5: of the midterm elections.

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Speaker 2: Well, Congressman, you point at Minnesota as an example of

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Speaker 2: where we're seeing this election debate obviously very heated, but Minnesota,

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Speaker 2: of course, has captured our attention for other reasons, including,

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Speaker 2: of course, the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti

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Speaker 2: at the hands of ICE officers. That is why Democrats

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Speaker 2: are now demanding reforms to ICE. Ten is what your

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Speaker 2: leadership was seeking, ten changes that they would like to

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Speaker 2: see in order to continue funding the Department of Homeland Security.

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Speaker 2: We understand the White House issued. Republicans issued a response.

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Speaker 2: Your leader Hockeing Jeffries has described that counter as woefully inadequate.

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Speaker 2: What is the minimum bar for user as to what

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Speaker 2: reforms would be adequate where compromise could be found.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think it's just Democrats.

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Speaker 5: I think the American public has real concerns, and they've

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Speaker 5: seen this unfold in videos in front of their eyes,

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Speaker 5: and they can see what's happening in minnesot They also

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Speaker 5: see that the Department of Homeland Security and the President

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Speaker 5: continue to misrepresent what's in those videos, calling people domestic

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Speaker 5: terrorists who are peacefully protesting as is their right under

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Speaker 5: the Constitution. I think the very minimum ICE agents ought

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Speaker 5: to act the same way that law enforcement does all

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Speaker 5: around this country.

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Speaker 4: No masks.

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Speaker 5: You can see a police officer. They should have a badge,

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Speaker 5: they should have body cameras. They should have to get

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Speaker 5: if they're going to search your home, they need to

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Speaker 5: get a judicial warrant that's embodied in the United States Constitution.

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Speaker 5: These are fundamental rights which ICE is trying to take

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Speaker 5: away in violation of the Constitution. We simply want to

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Speaker 5: have the same kind of rules for ICE that you

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Speaker 5: would have for any member of a local police force

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Speaker 5: anywhere in the United States.

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Speaker 1: We've talked to a number of Republican lawmakers about this

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Speaker 1: demasking issue and the identification issue. Congressman, and they are

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Speaker 1: dug in on this. This is a deal breaker and

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Speaker 1: a non starter, and they point to the dosing and

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Speaker 1: identifying an harassment of these ICE agents and their families.

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Speaker 1: How do we continue the conversation from there, because that's

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Speaker 1: where the breakdown happens. What do you tell your Republican

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Speaker 1: colleagues when you're not on camera and you're talking about

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Speaker 1: issues in the cloak room or at dinner.

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Speaker 5: Well, look at every police officer in America goes unmasked in.

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Speaker 4: Communities where they live. So if there was people are going.

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Speaker 5: To be targeted it would be your local law enforcement

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Speaker 5: who lives in the.

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Speaker 4: Same community that they do.

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Speaker 5: Public safety in truth is this is just a way

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Speaker 5: to intimidate people.

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Speaker 4: It's a way to hide your identity.

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Speaker 5: Frankly, I think it's dangerous for ICE officials and ICE

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Speaker 5: agents as well as certainly and most importantly dangerous for residents.

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Speaker 4: Of our community.

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Speaker 5: So it's a basic fundamental thing that we've had since

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Speaker 5: the birth of this republic two hundred and fifty years ago.

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Speaker 5: These basic rules need to be followed. And we don't

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Speaker 5: do it for FBI officials. We don't do it for

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Speaker 5: local law enforcement officials, we don't do it for anyone

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Speaker 5: in law enforcement. Why would we do it for ICE

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Speaker 5: agents who are now swarming our streets all over this country.

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Speaker 2: Well, of course, as we consider the funding that backs

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Speaker 2: those agents, Congressman, that was provided a great deal of

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Speaker 2: it in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which already passed.

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Speaker 2: It isn't necessary for DHS funding to be passed on

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Speaker 2: Friday for that to continue. What it is necessary to

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Speaker 2: continue FEMA TSA does rely on DHS not shutting down.

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Speaker 2: That is an argument your Republican colleagues are making. Why

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Speaker 2: is it worth it to shut down DHS if it

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Speaker 2: isn't necessarily going to impact ICE directly.

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Speaker 5: Well, what I would say is, if that's the case,

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Speaker 5: then I think you're right it is. ICE doesn't need

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Speaker 5: the money, So why not fund the Coast Guard? Why

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Speaker 5: not fund TSA, why not fund FEMA? We could do

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Speaker 5: all of that and not fund ICE as we continue

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Speaker 5: to negotiate, because, as you point out, ICE already has

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Speaker 5: the money they need, so why would they use ICE,

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Speaker 5: which doesn't need the funding to hold hostage the folks

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Speaker 5: that do transit agents at TSS or TSA or the

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Speaker 5: Coast Guard, for God's sake, the Coast Guard to defund

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Speaker 5: the Coastguard. So let's fund these other things. It's entirely

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Speaker 5: appropriate while we continue to work towards trying to find

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Speaker 5: common ground about the way ICE agents act out in

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Speaker 5: when they're engaging in the American public, and be certain

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Speaker 5: of this. Americans are very unhappy with ICE. It's very

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Speaker 5: unpopular because they've.

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Speaker 4: Seen two American citizens.

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Speaker 5: These weren't so called non documented people. Two American citizens

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Speaker 5: are dead within the last three weeks at the hands

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Speaker 5: of federal agents. That's why Americans are so angry, and

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Speaker 5: that's why they're with us on the question of how

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Speaker 5: to reform ICE so that it represents the values of

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Speaker 5: the American people.

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Speaker 1: Well, you're not just ranking member on the Admin Committee, Congressman,

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Speaker 1: your vice ranking member on the Appropriations Committee. How would

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Speaker 1: that happen? I hate to warn you, we only have

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Speaker 1: a little more than a minute left. Can you actually

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Speaker 1: take ICE funding from the rest of that bill and

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Speaker 1: essentially siphon that off from the rest? Would you have

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Speaker 1: to create a whole new funding bill just for that

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Speaker 1: department or how.

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Speaker 4: Would it work? Yeah?

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Speaker 5: Maybe just put it in the Propriation bill that's from

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Speaker 5: front of the House, strip out the ICE funding and

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Speaker 5: zero it out because it has funding under the other bills.

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Speaker 4: So you can do this.

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Speaker 5: It would take no Amende to get that done by

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Speaker 5: Fred Activity.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, sure, so.

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Speaker 1: Then we don't shut down. Does HOCKEYM Jeffrey support that, Well.

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Speaker 5: You'd have to ask him, but I'm pretty sure he'd

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Speaker 5: be very happy if we did that.

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Speaker 1: Yes, I'm just listening to you talk to Kaylee. I

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Speaker 1: think we might have just figured this out four days

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Speaker 1: in advance.

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Speaker 2: That kind of a deadline in Washington, I don't know, Joe, So.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for being with US, Yeah, exactly right, Joe

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Speaker 1: Morelli from New York twenty fourth district. That's up around

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Speaker 1: Rochester where I bet it's off the cold today, and

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Speaker 1: we appreciate the insights Congressman