Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mulling complained that "Kamikaze" Dems had sabotaged his supply of paperclips during the recent partial government shutdown.
During a Fox Business interview on Thursday, host Maria Bartiromo asked Mullin if he could insulate DHS from future shutdowns so "people are still getting paid."
"Right, well, you said it right. They shut down businesses, too," Mullin remarked. "How many agencies or how many departments and businesses that depend on us that contract through DHS? They hadn't been paid since February."
"I mean, these are people that's providing food for us or providing the paperclips for us," he griped. "All these had ripple effects because the Democrats' kamikaze approach to Department of Homeland."
Mullin, however, admitted that the department had the funds to withstand another government shutdown.
"We do have the ability to fund it because the president's ability to see the importance of funding them through the One Big Beautiful Bill," he insisted. "We're able to refund some of the coffers because we had been paying the payroll out of that One Big Beautiful Bill for all 22 components, which my payroll is roughly 1.6 billion every two weeks."
The secretary also pressed Congress to pass a reconciliation bill, which includes $1 billion to fund President Donald Trump's ballroom project.
"Let me address what that's about," he said of the ballroom funding. "Secret Service has a mission. The mission is — they are designed to provide security for the President of the United States and the complex as to which he resides in and does work in."
"The Secret Service cannot take private funding," he added. "And so what the Senate is doing there is being able to allow them to have the security procedures in place and the infrastructure in place to protect that ballroom and also the grounds that the White House resides in."
