Chairman Thompson Statement on Speaker Pelosi’s Call to Delay State of the Union Address

(WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, released the following statement on Speaker Pelosi’s call to delay the State of the Union address:

"I wholeheartedly support Speaker Pelosi’s call to delay the State of the Union address until the government re-opens. The Secret Service is the lead federal agency in charge of facilitating security for the yearly State of the Union address, but because of the Trump shutdown, the agency is currently not fully operational. It would be completely inappropriate for President Trump to further deplete the agency’s resources and manpower for the sole purpose of having an hour of uninterrupted primetime television coverage.

“Today, nearly four weeks after the President shut down the government over his ineffective, wasteful border wall, hundreds of thousands of federal employees are still being held hostage – and our national security is becoming more vulnerable every day. President Trump needs to bring a swift end to his absurd temper tantrum and reopen the government immediately.”

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