Thread: Congressional impasse over immigration, homeland security

Congressional impasse over immigration, homeland security

By ERICA WERNER 8 minutes ago

.View gallery

WASHINGTON (AP) — Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared a Senate stalemate Tuesday over immigration provisions attached to a Homeland Security spending bill, and called on the House to make the next move to avoid an agency shutdown.

Related Stories

1. Congress stuck on Homeland Security funding, immigration Associated Press
2. [$$] Senate Democrats Block GOP Move on Obama Immigration Policy The Wall Street Journal
3. Republicans will not give up on stalled security funding bill Reuters
4. The GOP's plan to fund DHS just failed. Now what? Vox.com
5. GOP’s Immigration Strategy Is at Risk The Wall Street Journal

House Republicans said they had no intention of doing so, leaving Congress at an impasse with no clear way forward barely two weeks before the agency's $40 billion budget shuts off.

"I can tell you I think it's clearly stuck in the Senate," McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters after a closed-door lunch of Senate Republicans.

"And the next step is obviously up to the House."

Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, responded with a statement seeking to put the focus on Senate Democrats. Democrats voted three times last week to block a House-passed bill that funds the department for the remainder of the budget year, while also overturning President Barack Obama's executive actions limiting deportations for millions here illegally.

"Until there is some signal from those Senate Democrats what would break their filibuster, there's little point in additional House action," Steel said. Democrats say they can't accept the bill unless the contested language on immigration is removed.

The impasse comes with Homeland Security funding set to expire Feb. 27 without action by Congress. The most likely outcome may be a short-term extension of current funding levels, something Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is urging Congress to avoid because it would prevent the agency from going forward with a host of planned initiatives, from improvements at the Secret Service to new security technology on the U.S.-Mexico border.
View gallery

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., joined by other GOP leaders, from left, Sen. John Bar …

"I'm urging every member of Congress that I can meet, Democrat and Republican, to figure out a way to break this impasse so I can get a fully funded bill by Feb. 27," Johnson told reporters Tuesday on the way out of a meeting with senators.

The fight over immigration and the Homeland Security spending bill is a major early test for Republicans who took full control of Congress in January for the first time in eight years. Democrats are already gleefully declaring that the GOP is failing the test, but with Republicans six votes shy of the 60 needed to advance most legislation in the Senate, they say there's little they can do if Democrats won't budge.

"The Democrats are filibustering it. I don't know how we get blamed for that this time," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "Everybody knows it takes 60 votes to do anything."

House Republicans, for their part, are frustrated that even now that the Senate is in GOP hands, they are still being asked to fold to Democratic demands.

"A hundred senators got elected to say they wanted to solve problems," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters ahead of McConnell's comments Tuesday. "They didn't get elected to say, 'we'll wait and see what the House does.' They should show us where they stand."

http://news.yahoo.com/mcconnell-sena...193718285.html

http://www.alipac.us/f12/house-major...ing-ob-317458/

Shut down DHS!

W

I like it. House, hold the line. Senate, hold the line. Not a dime, Republicans, not a dime. Don't let them buffoon you into believing we care a hoot about FEMA or TSA or grants to the states or even the functions of the other agencies in DHS. We don't. All we care about right now is stopping Obama amnesty. We can manage ourselves with respect to the other agencies until this is resolved to the full satisfaction of the American People. If that's 2 years, then so be it. Without an appropriation and authorization bill, any action taken by Obama and DHS to issue permits to illegal aliens that allows them to live, work, reside or function in the US, will be unauthorized and thus null and void.

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Shut down DHS!

W

Absolutely.

GOP struggles with DHS strategy

Getty

By Scott Wong and Rebecca Shabad - 02/09/15 06:09 PM EST

Republicans are scrambling to figure out how to avert a shutdown at the Homeland Security Department while gutting President Obama’s immigration actions.

GOP leaders probably won’t settle on a path forward until after next week’s President’s Day recess — right before funding runs out on Feb. 27.

The GOP’s task has grown more complicated in recent weeks amid renewed threats from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which Democrats have sought to capitalize upon.On the Senate floor Monday, Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) brought the terrorism threat front and center, describing in graphic detail how a Jordanian pilot was burned alive for 22 minutes at the hands of ISIS. The group has “bragged” it’s coming for America next, Reid said.

“Now, we are 18 days away from having no money for the Department of Homeland Security,” said Reid, who called for the GOP to bring up a “clean” funding stripped of measures attacking Obama’s immigration executive actions. “Republicans are hell-bent on playing chicken with our national security.”

The recent terror activity has shifted the media spotlight away from the fight over Obama’s unilateral actions shielding up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.

Obama will spark more debate over terrorism beginning Wednesday when he sends lawmakers his request to use military force against ISIS. The request will be rigorously debated in a series of hearings on both sides of the Capitol.

The GOP’s next step on DHS funding is unclear.

During three separate votes last week, Senate Democrats filibustered the House-passed spending bill, objecting to two GOP riders aimed at rolling back Obama’s executive actions that make it easier for illegal immigrants to stay in the country.

Republicans in both the House and Senate are now waiting for the other chamber to go first. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) recently declared: “The House did its work,” adding that it’s time for the Senate “to get their act together.”

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) isn’t telegraphing his next move. And other GOP senators say the ball now lies in the House’s court.

“We are unable to get on this bill to amend it. And a result of that, the House is going to have to send us another bill that we can get on,” said Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho).

As the end-of-the-month deadline looms, options to fund the agency are becoming increasingly limited:
· Republicans could abandon their efforts to use the DHS funding bill as the vehicle to torpedo Obama’s immigration actions, and instead turn to the court system. Some GOP aides point out that the underlying $40 billion bill, authored by Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), has things in it conservatives should like, such as more money for Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Secret Service, as well as thousands more detention beds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Still, this would be a dramatic climb-down difficult for conservatives in the House to accept.
· Congress could kick the can down the road and pass another short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to keep the department funded past the Feb. 27 deadline. That CR could be as short as 30 days, buying Republicans a bit more time to figure out how to fight Obama’s immigration moves.
· If Senate Republicans and Democrats can work out a compromise funding bill soon, it could be merged with the House-passed DHS bill in a conference committee. But those House-Senate negotiators would have to move fast with the deadline quickly approaching.

If none of those options work, the DHS would shut down, which would set off a blame game in the media.

Just as with the 16-day government shutdown of 2013, Democrats would have the advantage of the bully pulpit. Both Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson have already warned that a shutdown would be catastrophic for national security.

Over the weekend, Johnson said 30,000 workers would be furloughed if the department closed down.

Republicans believe the American public will find Obama at fault this time around, but they also don’t want to be seen as being soft on terrorism.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said he’ll hold a hearing on Thursday examining the threat from ISIS. During an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas) warned about ISIS-trained fighters striking American targets but didn’t mention the quandary over DHS funding.

And in an op-ed Monday, McCaul said that Obama’s spending priorities show he’s more concerned with combating global warming than homegrown terrorism.

“I hope that’s the way you write the story, and not that it’s Republicans’ [fault],” conservative Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), an immigration attorney, told reporters. “The president is willing to put the national security of the United States at risk so he can grant 5 million people legal status.”

Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters late Monday a CR is always an option, but might not be needed if the House reconsiders their strategy.

"That's always, as you know, a possibility around here," he said, chuckling, "but I think it's going to come down to if the House figures out what they can move, because clearly we don't have a bill over here.

Appropriations bills originate in the House and it's been demonstrated now that we're not going to get the votes that are necessary to move it through the Senate."

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/23...urity-strategy

Appropriations bills originate in the House and it's been demonstrated now that we're not going to get the votes that are necessary to move it through the Senate."

Correct. Hold the line. Stand your ground. Not a dime, Republicans, not a dime.

Republicans turn up heat on Dems in DHS fight

Sen. Mark Kirk says Republicans should put “coffins” outside Democrats’ offices if the U.S. is attacked during a shutdown.

By SEUNG MIN KIM
2/10/15 3:10 PM EST
Updated 2/10/15 8:15 PM EST

The Republicans who control Congress have long pledged not to let the Department of Homeland Security shut down on their watch.

But with its funding set to run dry in 17 days, and with the House and Senate still tied in knots over President Barack Obama’s immigration policies, no signs are emerging of a solution to the DHS standoff — and Republicans are ramping up their efforts to blame Democrats.

Senate GOP leaders waved surrender on one front Tuesday, acknowledging they won’t be able to overcome the stubborn filibusters that Democrats have waged against Republican attempts to roll back Obama’s immigration actions through the Homeland Security spending bill. Meanwhile, in a brief yet blistering interview, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) suggested that Senate Democrats deserved far more public blame for the impasse than they were getting.

“The Republicans – if there is a successful attack during a DHS shutdown – we should build a number of coffins outside each Democratic office and say, ‘You are responsible for these dead Americans,’” Kirk said Tuesday.



DRIVING THE DAY
Is McConnell cruising for bruising?


Kirk also told POLITICO: “In the end, eventually the lapdog media – of which you guys are probably all members of – is unable to call it for what it is: just pure politics to try to hurt the Republicans. I think Democrats mistakenly feel a shutdown is a scenario which advantages them.”

Other Republicans tried to deflect the blame from their party, though using less dramatic language.

“The Democrats are filibustering it,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said. “I don’t know how we get blamed for that this time.”

Short of a stopgap funding measure that seemingly no one wants — in either the Capitol or the administration — the GOP-led Congress remains short on specific ideas for avoiding a funding lapse that would risk furloughing tens of thousands of DHS workers and forcing 200,000 more Homeland Security personnel to work without pay. Instead, the $39.7 billion Homeland Security bill has become a legislative hot potato between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who looked at each other to make the next move.



ALSO ON POLITICO:
Johnson: A stopgap bill not enough for DHS

SEUNG MIN KIM

McConnell said Tuesday that the DHS ball was in the House Republicans’ court – telling reporters that his chamber was “clearly stuck” because of repeated Democratic filibusters to the bill the House passed last month. That bill would roll back a series of Obama’s directives on immigration dating back to 2011.

“We can’t get on it, we can’t offer amendments to it,” McConnell said of the legislation. “And the next step is obviously up to the House.”

His top deputy, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), added: “We’re trying, we’ve done the best we can. At some point, the arithmetic is reality.” Senate Republicans such as Hatch and Jeff Flake of Arizona also said the House would have to come up with a new option that could get 60 votes in the Senate.

But House Republicans have repeatedly said that their chamber has done its job and that it’s up to senators to find the requisite Democratic support to clear the must-pass funding bill. Republicans have tried to pressure a handful of Senate Democrats who opposed Obama’s unilateral immigration actions to join their side, but so far those moderate Democrats have showed no signs of budging.

“Now, the pressure is on Senate Democrats who claim to oppose the president’s action, but are filibustering a bill to stop it,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said Tuesday. “Until there is some signal from those Senate Democrats what would break their filibuster, there’s little point in additional House action.”

Some senators suggested that a short-term funding bill for Homeland Security would be the likely endgame, although McConnell declined to say whether that was how the DHS fight would end.

Some House Republicans and leadership aides privately have mulled a strategy in which the Senate would pass a DHS bill without immigration riders, then send it back to the House, which could amend it. Democrats could still block the measure in the Senate, and Obama would still threaten to veto it, but it would at least show some forward movement.

The parties don’t disagree much on the funding provisions of the DHS bill, which Democrats and Republicans negotiated late last year. But the House-passed amendments aimed at gutting Obama’s executive actions on immigration have prompted the biggest partisan fight in the new GOP-led Congress. Obama’s actions could prevent deportations for nearly 5 million immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally and allow them to work here lawfully.

The congressional battle comes as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that will implement the key part of Obama’s actions, prepares to start taking applications for the first phase of the new policy next week. November’s actions expanded the 2012 administration directive protecting so-called Dreamers — immigrants who came here illegally as children — and USCIS will start accepting applicants for that part on Feb. 18.

Democrats are demanding a clean DHS bill free of immigration provisions, but several senior House Republican aides were skeptical that such legislation could pass the GOP-led House, even if carried mostly on Democratic votes.

Still, Democrats indicated that few options exist for a way out of the quagmire short of a clean funding bill for the rest of the fiscal year. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called the prospect of a short-term continuing resolution “very, very bad,” and Democrats listed several ways a stopgap bill would hamper DHS — reasons similar to those cited by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who was on the Hill on Tuesday.

But Senate Democratic leaders also declined to flatly rule out a stopgap spending bill as a viable — and perhaps ultimate — option.

“Jeh Johnson described it this way: It’s like going on a 300-mile trip on a five-gallon tank of gas,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “It just doesn’t work. So we much prefer to do full funding.”

Johnson, who has frequently been on the Hill in recent days to urge lawmakers on funding for his department, stressed that point again. Earlier Tuesday, Johnson issued a statement that warned there would be no money to pay for enhanced border-security efforts if Congress resorts to a stopgap bill – saying DHS would be “constrained” by a short-term bill from improving security on the southern border and maintaining the boost in resources to deal with the consequences of last summer’s border crisis.

In a brief gaggle with reporters after meetings on Capitol Hill, Johnson declined to say whether he would advise Obama to veto a short-term bill for his department.

“We need a fully-funded appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security and we need it real soon,” Johnson told reporters. “As long as we’re on a CR, there are things that we just cannot do.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/0...#ixzz3ROaUJ9x4

I Congress will not stop Obama and DHS from violating the US Constitution and many of our existing immigration and border laws, then Americans that have sworn pledges to our flag, republic, and Constitution are required to shut it down!

We are about to tell Congress to do their job to stop Obama and DHS or We The People will!

W

"I'm urging every member of Congress that I can meet, Democrat and Republican, to figure out a way to break this impasse so I can get a fully funded bill by Feb. 27," Johnson told reporters Tuesday on the way out of a meeting with senators.

Perhaps you're talking to the wrong people, Johnson. How about carrying your butt over to the White House and having a talk with your buddy in the Oval Office. After all, he (Obama) is the one that instigated this mess!