Senate because it did not provide money for the barrier. After the shutdown commenced, Griff Jenkins asked Gohmert how long Trump should keep the government closed. Gohmert said that only a fourth of the government was shut down as Congress had already approved other portions of the funding through September 2019 and answered that Trump should keep it closed "till hell freezes over" as Congress owed Americans border security. He added that the most compassionate thing the US could do for Mexico and Central America was to not give either country "money that ends up in the hands of drug cartels." In a later statement, Gohmert said, "It is simply outrageous that people who live behind walls, gated communities, have armed body guards and lead the Democrat Party, like millionaire Speaker Pelosi, would deny the American public the simple right to be safe from dangerous criminal elements included in the groups pouring illegally into our country." Committee assignments Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations Committee on Natural Resources (Ranking Member) Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Caucus memberships Freedom Caucus Israel Allies Caucus United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus Tea Party Caucus Republican Study Committee Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus Congressional Western Caucus Controversies "Terror babies" In a speech about national security on the House floor in June 2010, Gohmert claimed that a retired FBI agent had told him that one of the things the FBI had been looking at were terrorist cells overseas sending young women to become pregnant so they would deliver the baby in the United States, and then take the baby with them back to be raised as a terrorist. When adult, this operative—a U.S. citizen by birth—could be easily infiltrated in the U.S. to carry out terrorist actions. On August 12, 2010, Gohmert appeared on Anderson Cooper 360° to defend comments he had recently made on the House floor about "terror babies". On Fox Business, Gohmert later claimed that an airline passenger with a relative in Hamas had a grandchild who was to be intentionally born in the United States. In the interview, he said that pregnant women from the Middle East were traveling to the U.S. on tourist visas, planning to deliver children there. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution states that children born on