Rep. John Culberson of Texas on Sanctuary Cities

FRANK GAFFNEY:

It is a great privilege to welcome, I believe for the first time to our microphones, Representative John Culberson. He is known within the houses of congress as a cardinal. He is a member of the House appropriations committee, a chairman, indeed, of its subcommittee on commerce, justice, and science. He serves in a number of other capacities, including looking after transportation and homeland security, and he’s truly one of the leaders in the fight to protect our country against, well, unconstitutional activity and various other challenges that are being made to our society, our way of life even. And it’s a great privilege to have him with us. Congressman John Culberson, thank you so much for taking a few minutes to talk with you.

JOHN CULBERSON:

Frank, it’s good to be with you and I’m delighted to share good news with your listeners that there really is action being taken to box in the Obama administration and roll back their far left-wing agenda.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

I couldn’t be more pleased to be able to talk with you about that, because there’s been a dearth of such good news, as you know, for some time. Let’s talk, first of all, about this sanctuary cities business and what you’ve accomplished in trying to prevent what seems to be really a moral threat to law enforcement and public safety.

JOHN CULBERSON:

Well, Frank, the Founders gave the congress the most powerful persuasive tool possible in the power of the purse, entrusting that to the congress and the congress entrusted that in the appropriations committee. And as the subcommittee chairman, that has been entrusted to me to be the, essentially the CFO, the chief financial officer, for the Department of Justice, for NASA, Department of Commerce. All federal law enforcement is under my jurisdiction. And I use that, excuse me, power of the purse to persuade. The alleged Department of Justice announced last Thursday at three o’clock that they would do a hundred and eighty-degree reversal and the Department of Justice, under Barack Obama, notified every law enforcement agency in America that they must cooperate one hundred percent of the time with federal requests for immigration information about criminals in their custody, that locals must cooperate one hundred percent of the time in handing over criminal illegal aliens in their custody, so federal authorities can deport them. And for the first time, sanctuary cities now must choose between receiving federal law enforcement money or protecting criminal aliens. They can no longer do both.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

I want to call attention to something else I know you’ve been sort of leading on as well and that is its determination, that is, the administration’s, to turn over to so-called international stakeholders, one of the most important functions that I believe is absolutely central to the functioning of the internet as we have known it since its inception, namely, US sort of critical management of this naming role. Tell us what’s going on there and what you’re trying to do.

JOHN CULBERSON:

Frank, the secret to this – and this can be done by other subcommittee chairmen on appropriations, the full committee chairman, because each one of us literally is the chief financial officer for the agencies under our jurisdiction. They cannot – these big agencies cannot move money around during the year without our permission. They have to submit a spending plan to us for approval. And once I discovered that I had that authority, I used it. I call it standing on their air hose. Until they follow the law, until they do the right thing, and enforce the law as written by the people’s representatives. And in the case of sanctuary cities, I enforced a law that was enacted in 1996 by the Republican congress to cut off funding to sanctuary cities. But it had not been enforced since ’96. So this is the first time since 1996 that Republican congress law was enforced. So it can be done. I’m demonstrating how to do it to my other – to my colleagues. And then on the case of the internet domain names, Frank, my commerce, justice, science appropriations bill prohibits the Department of Commerce from relinquishing the control of the internet, period. And relinquish is the key word. They have – they can plan all they want, but the Department of Commerce, the Obama administration, as hard as they may want to, cannot relinquish control of internet domain names to anyone else other than the current entity that’s under the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce. It will stay right there. And if the Department of Commerce tries to relinquish control of the internet through this international body, I’ll have – I have the authority to block their movement of money within the agency. And it really chokes them off. Again, it’s like standing on their air hose and they understand that. And they cannot make me give money to them. They can’t sue me. You can’t get a court order. I’ve already – this is how I got ATF to drop the ammo ban last year, Frank, you remember they tried to ban .223 ammo and suddenly it vanished magically. That was me using this same authority.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

We’re talking with Representative John Culberson. He represents with great distinction the people of the seventh district of Texas. Let me just ask you, Congressman Culberson, when you have this kind of impact, it is in the face of the administration’s clear determination to flout the law. In particular, in this case, of the ICANN relinquishing. They are moving forward, as best I understand, do you have any sense as of now, especially with the uncertainties, I guess, as the status of this legislative initiative, given the state of the Senate and the appropriations process and cromnibuses and so on, do you have any sense that they’re actually now beginning to take corrective action as you’ve accomplished with the sanctuary cities?

JOHN CULBERSON:

Yes. And Frank, the Department of Justice actually has already notified, Frank, every law enforcement agency in America, beginning last Thursday, that they are no longer – local jurisdictions are no longer eligible for federal law enforcement funding unless they comply with this federal law enacted in 1996 that requires one hundred percent cooperation, one hundred percent compliance with federal detainers to get criminal illegal aliens out of the country. Their federal law enforcement money at the local level will be cut off. That was sent out formally. The Department of Justice notified all these agencies formally last Thursday. And the secret to this, Frank, that I discovered was that I’ve got great first-grade staff. This has been a team effort. It took me twelve months to get DOJ to do this. But you do it, you find a law, this is the secret, you can encourage as you talk to your listeners, to other members of congress, you find a law that’s very clear, that says the federal government, the executive branch, can only do one, two, three. And then, in fact, they’re trying to do seven, eight, nine. And then you go to the subcommittee chairman like me who’s responsible for the funding and say, you’ve got a clear violation of law. And then you don’t go to the political types. The secret is you go to the professionals in the Department of Justice who are – take their oath of office to enforce the law very seriously. They’re there for many years. There are good people over there. And they’re not political types. They’re not appointed by any president. They serve you and me. And then you do it quietly. You give them a chance, you talk to them privately and carefully and give them a chance to do it on their own and you don’t embarrass them. And you do it behind the scenes and very quietly. And then, magically, these things happen. ATF dropped the ammo ban on .223 in less than three working days. The San Francisco sheriff’s department not only will lose their funding, and the entire state of California, but if they don’t – if Californians, San Francisco, don’t repeal their sanctuary policy, Frank, the Department of Justice has already told them, you could owe us a refund for the last twenty-five years of federal law enforcement money. And that’s four billion dollars California will owe America unless they repeal their law.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Well, John Culberson, this is a tremendous civics lesson, I think, for all of us. And I hope an example for how to proceed, again, for your colleagues including the leadership. Let me just ask you, sir, my specific question really was do you see any sign that a similar kind of course correction is in the offing with respect to ICANN, this domain name registration?

JOHN CULBERSON:

Well, yes. In fact, they are planning, the Obama administration wants to give up control of the internet, the Obama administration has planned for giving up control of the internet. But they are – they cannot do so because they have to get around me. And they have to have my approval, the Department of Commerce has to have my approval for critical funding that they must move, these giant agencies, like any other big outfit, have to move money from function A to function, you know, F or D, for example. And they can’t do that without my approval. So the professionals, again, I focus on the professionals in these agencies. I never – I don’t fool with the political types. I focus on the professionals. Here’s the law. You guys are, you know, I told them, I’m, you know, my district just re-elected me. I’m hoping to win the general, but I’ve been re-elected in the primary. I will be here, fellows, next year. Barack Obama is going to be gone. You’re going to have to deal with me. You can’t sue me. You can’t, go ahead, you can’t get a court order. I’ll block your ability to move money unless you enforce the law. So that’s how I’m going to stop them, Frank, and I’m very optimistic that it will work.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

There is nothing like leadership. And I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the kind your applying right now on the air hose, Congressman John Culberson. Please come back to us soon with updates on this and let’s talk about other ways in which you can get the Justice Department’s attention on, for example, Hillary Clinton’s emails. Thank you, sir. Next up, Bill Gertz joins us inside the ring. Right after this.