Hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cited "security concerns" in her request to delay the upcoming State of the Union speech, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said her department will have no problem keeping the Capitol Building safe.
Pelosi made the request to President Donald Trump in a letter Wednesday morning. Nielsen fired back on Twitter in the afternoon.
"The Department of Homeland Security and the US Secret Service are fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union," Nielsen wrote. "We thank the Service for their mission focus and dedication and for all they do each day to secure our homeland."
The government shutdown that began Dec. 22 has resulted in hundreds of thousands of federal workers not getting paid on time, including the Secret Service. There appears to be no end in sight, as Trump is holding firm on his request for several billion dollars for a border wall between the United States and Mexico.
Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are sticking to their own guns, promising not to allocate any money for the wall.
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