DCCC Chair: GOP Opposition To National Security Funds Will Be Issue In 2010
Democratic leadership in Congress is pledging to make Republican votes against key national security and defense funding measures a feature in the upcoming congressional elections, following the botched Christmas Day terrorist attack aboard a Detroit-bound airliner.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-M.D.) told the Huffington Post on Wednesday that it was the committee's duty to ensure that, come 2010, the American people are aware that House Republicans opposed a Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that included funding for airport security.
The 2010 appropriations bill contained Transportation Security Administration funding for explosives detection systems and other security measures -- it was opposed by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) among others.
"It is not so much that the DCCC will be holding people accountable but the American people will be holding people accountable. They deserve to have that info and we will make sure they have it," Van Hollen said, in an interview that took place Wednesday afternoon. "And I'm assuming our Republican colleagues will have an opportunity to explain why they voted against additional resources for homeland security."
The same dynamic would hold true in the Senate, where a procedural play by Republican senators to derail health care reform by nearly killing a separate bill to fund defense operations would be held against them, predicted Van Hollen predicted.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/31/dccc-chair-gop-opposition_n_408229.html