Sunday, March 1, 2015 10:49 AM

Republicans who are threatening to defund the Department of Homeland Security to block the president's executive order on immigration are "self-righteous and delusional," Rep. Peter King said Sunday, blasting the small group's efforts as being "irresponsible."

"There's an element within our party, a wing within the Congress, which is absolutely irresponsible," King told ABC News' "This Week" co-host Martha Raddatz. "They have no concept of reality."

The New York Republican, who serves as chair for the Committee on Homeland Security's Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, and as a member of the Intelligence Committee, emphasized that he is "as opposed to the president's immigration action as they are."

But even though he doesn't agree with the order, King told Raddatz that it's imperative funding continue for the Department of Homeland Security.

On Friday, Congress passed a one-week bill to avert a partial shutdown of the department, as leaders in both political parties quelled a revolt by the House conservatives furious that the measure left Obama's immigration policy intact.

The legislation passed the House by a bipartisan vote of 357-60, and Obama signed it just a few minutes before midnight.

"You see what happened in Denmark, Paris," King told Raddatz. "What ISIS is doing with the beheadings. The people arrested in New York the other night. For these people to be threatening to defund the Department of Homeland Security at a time when the threat streams have never been greater since 9/11, it's irresponsible."

The group consists of "40 or 50 people at most out of a caucus of 237 and a Congress of 435," said King. "We cannot allow such a small group to be dominating and controlling what happens in the United States Congress, especially at a time when we're confronting terrorism. We have American lives at risk."

King called for Republicans to continue standing behind House Speaker John Boehner . Reports this past week indicated that conservatives could challenge the Ohio Republican by making a motion to vacate his chair if the speaker puts forward a "clean" bill to allow $39.7 billion in Homeland Security funding. Conservative Republicans could challenge House Speaker John Boehner next week in a continued showdown over funding the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year.

"He has to find a way this week, as early as possible in the week, once Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu finishes his speech, to bring the clean bill to the floor for a vote," said King. "We're asking for democracy; let it come to a vote. There's no doubt it will pass. This was an appropriations bill that the Republicans put together."

The bill already passed the Senate with a 68-31 vote, King said, and "it was our bill to begin with."

In the House, King said, "we have to stand behind the speaker and make it clear, we're not going to allow this faction to be dominating and to be impeding what we're trying to do."

If that doesn't happen and the factions don't come together, King warned, "we have no chance of winning in 2016."

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/pet.../01/id/627562/