Chip Roy on shutdown threats: ‘It’s now or never’ on border demands

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect on which show Chip Roy made his comments.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said conservatives need to withhold government funding to force the Biden administration to negotiate to meet the GOP’s border demands, with a potential partial shutdown just two weeks away.  

During his appearance on “The Sean Spicer Show” on Thursday, Roy called out President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as being “lawless” and sounded off that, for conservatives, it is a “now or never” moment to secure the southern border.    

“I hate that we’re in this position, that our president is completely lawless, and that the secretary of Homeland Security is completely lawless, but it’s true,” Roy said. “So we have to not do this for political purposes. We can’t just say, ‘Oh, we’ll win elections if we just fight, but we’ll figure it out next January.’ No, we have an obligation right now, to actually stop them. So we need to withhold funding and force Biden to the table. There’s no other choice. It’s now or never.”

Roy, along with other Senate and House conservatives, have been calling for the Senate Democrats and Biden to crack down on the flow of migrants in the country. The dispute has delayed a supplemental funding bill that includes aid for Ukraine and Israel. House hard-liners, like Roy, have opposed more aid for Ukraine. Some have recently shown interest in giving support to Ukraine if Congress passes their preferred border bill, H.R. 2, which passed the Republican-led House in May. 

With the foreign aid in deadlock, some conservatives hope to attach some border security provisions onto regular government funding legislation. 

Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said during a Friday event the House Republicans’ trip to the U.S. southern border left her concerned about whether a partial government shutdown could be avoided. 

“I know all of you saw the trip to the border … some of the things that came out of that also further concerned me about the path they are headed towards in 14 days,” she said. 

On Tuesday, Roy circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter urging his conference to withhold government funding until Democrats and the administration agree to asylum reforms and border security included in the Secure the Border Act. 

“We are absolutely an abject failure right now, in terms of being a sovereign nation with a secure border, and we’re endangering our citizens,” Roy told Spicer on Thursday. “The federal government has an obligation to do their job. They’re not.” 

The government will go into a partial shutdown if Congress doesn’t provide funding for departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, as well as military construction, by Jan. 19. The rest of the funding needs to come before the Feb. 2 deadline.

Updated at 3:39 p.m.