Washington, DC - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet issued the following statement after the House of Representatives passed a clean bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS):

"Passing a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security should never have taken this long. The agency has been operating on short term funding measures since October 1 of last year and was just hours away from a shutdown last week. No Coloradan - Democrat or Republican - would run a business or local government this way.

"As we move past yet another manufactured crisis, Congress should now have a serious debate about fixing our immigration system. Our broken system is separating families and holding our economy back. Let's work together in a bipartisan way, as the Senate did in the last Congress, to find a solution. The Senate passed a bill with broad, bipartisan support that would support our economy, bolster our national security, and do the right thing for millions of families. The House should produce its own bill or debate the Senate bill. Let's have that discussion and fix this broken system."

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