Thread: Congress Agrees to One-Week DHS Funding Bill to Avoid Shutdown

Congress Agrees to One-Week DHS Funding Bill to Avoid Shutdown

Feb. 27, 2015 8:32pm Pete Kasperowicz

The Senate late Friday passed a one-week funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, avoiding a DHS shutdown that would otherwise happen at the end of the day.

The Senate vote came about three hours after the House failed to pass a three-week extension, which sent Republicans scrambling about what steps to take next.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) passed a one-week DHS funding bill late Friday, and the House was expected to follow shortly, avoiding a possible DHS shutdown. Image: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Dozens of House conservatives balked at a bill to fund DHS that didn’t defund President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration. And with most Democrats opposing anything other than a full-year funding bill, the House bill failed late Friday afternoon.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether House Republicans could even agree to a one-week bill, but the pressure of a possible DHS shutdown seemed to be enough to allow a short, one-week extension.

After being out for several hours, the Senate reconvened shortly after 8 p.m., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) quickly passed the one-week extension by unanimous consent, without having to hold a roll call vote.

Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who had been opposed to anything other than a full-year funding bill, said he was satisfied that the short extension would help Congress solve the problem next week. Reid’s consent followed conversations that he and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had with President Barack Obama, who has said he wants to see DHS funded, even if just for a short time.

“Progress has been made all during the day,” Reid said. “I’m confident the House will pass a seven-day CR tonight, and there will be, within seven days, full funding for the Department of Homeland Security.”

House Republicans were expected to reconvene the House shortly and pass it.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015...avoid-shutdown

http://www.alipac.us/f12/what-happen...s-down-317898/

February 27, 2015, 08:32 pm

Senate passes one-week DHS bill

By Jordain Carney

Getty Images

Senators voted Friday night to pass a short-term spending bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), less than four hours before the department runs out of money.

The eleventh-hour effort, which passed by unanimous consent, would fund the department for one week.

The Senate passed the bill after a push by House Republican leadership to take up a three-week spending bill failed. More than 50 Republicans voted against the legislation, setting off a hours-long scramble to try to figure out how to prevent a shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appeared on the Senate floor to announce the one-week measure.

"I thank all senators for working to pass this one-week extension for the Department of Homeland Security," McConnell said.

Reid added that he is "confident" the House will pass the bill.

"Progress has been made all during the day. I appreciate... the cooperation of everyone involved. I'm confident the House will pass a seven-day C.R. tonight and there will be full funding for the Department of Homeland Security," the Nevada Democrat said.

But, Reid and other key Senate Democrats slammed House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) earlier after the failed House vote. They called on him to fully fund the department through the end of September.

"The Republican Congress has shown that they simply cannot govern," Reid said in a statement.

Administration officials warned repeatedly this week that if the department were to shutdown, approximately 75 to 80 percent of DHS employees would be forced to work without pay, and an additional 30,000 would be furloughed.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/...es-one-week-cr

Don't do it, US House of Representatives, don't do it! Not a dime, Republicans, not a dime. Hold the line. Stand your ground. Do not fund a Department whose activities you know are illegal, that threaten our separation of powers, that stomp on our Constitution, and flood our nation with illegal aliens by failure and refusal to do the job we pay this Department to do. Stop it, now, in its tracks.

If you fund this agency, then you have failed to exercise your power of the purse, the only power we have against a subversive, treasonous Department running afoul of both our laws and the will of the people of the United States, and you will have thrown us to the wolves, the same as the Senate.

Reid’s consent followed conversations that he and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had with President Barack Obama, who has said he wants to see DHS funded, even if just for a short time.

Sure he does, to show the court the Congress funded it even if just for a short time, without the riders even with full knowledge of his illegal activities that have come out since the DHS funding in December.

Sickening.

One Week Punt? Lawmakers Seek to Avoid Homeland Security Shutdown

BY CARRIE DANN, ALEX MOE, FRANK THORP V AND LUKE RUSSERT

Lawmakers sought Friday night to prevent a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security before midnight, when funding for the agency is slated to run out.

Hours before the deadline, the Senate approved a one-week stopgap bill by voice vote that punts the deadline to next Friday. That move gave the House about three and a half hours to pass the short-term extension before the midnight deadline.

In a breakthrough, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who had urged Democrats to vote against a previous short-term measure, asked fellow Democrats to support the one-week patch, saying that it would tee up a vote on a long-term funding bill next week.

With Democratic support, the one-week patch should have sufficient votes to pass.

Those developments came after a stunning rebuke to GOP leaders, when the House failed to pass a three-week measure.

The vote was 203-224.

The lost vote was an embarrassment for House leaders, who had appeared confident earlier Friday that the measure would easily pass.

Fifty-two Republicans broke with their leadership to oppose the temporary funding measure. Conservatives said the stopgap bill represented a cave to the White House by failing to curtail the president's executive orders regarding immigration.

And only a dozen Democrats backed the bill after party leaders discouraged them from supporting a measure that would simply rehash the current fight again in mid-March.

House Democrats still say they want a bill, passed earlier Friday by the Senate, to fund the department for one year without any immigration-related add-ons.

Earlier Friday, President Barack Obama convened a meeting with key staff, including DHS head Jeh Johnson, late Friday to discuss the impending deadline, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. The president also called the House and Senate Democratic leaders "to get an update on efforts to ensure that the Department of Homeland Security does not shut down."

House leaders had argued that the weeks-long extension would give them time to hash out differences with the Senate to come up with a long-term solution that also addressed immigration. But Boehner was unable to woo enough conservatives with that argument, forcing another scramble as the clock ticks towards midnight.

Late on Friday, the Department of Homeland Security issued a 46-page document outlining procedures for a possible funding lapse, including an outline of which employees would be exempt from the shutdown.

In the event of a shutdown, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has said that about 80 percent of DHS employees would still be required to come to work but would not be paid until Congress acts.

Some moderate Republicans were incensed at the failure of the earlier three-week vote.

Asked if the one-week patch would pass, Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent told reporters: "It better. It sure as hell better have the votes."

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/cong...utdown-n314026

BREAKING NEWS

The House has passed a stopgap bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security for seven days. The bill now heads to President Obama.

Breaking News:

House sends 1-week Homeland Security funding bill to Obama

House passes one-week funding extension for Homeland Security

2 minutes ago

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4. Senate passes Homeland Security funds through Sept. 30 Reuters
5. U.S. Senate votes to clear path for security agency funding Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a one-week funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security late on Friday, in time to avert a partial shutdown for the agency at midnight.

The two-thirds majority vote, which came with support from Democrats a few hours after the House failed to pass a three-week extension, buys time for Congress to sort out a longer-term funding solution for the domestic security agency.

http://news.yahoo.com/u-senate-passe...013312192.html

Well. that should drop republicans on a scale of one to 10 to a minus 9, after all the promises they made about what they would do in January. This is funding what they promised not to fund even tho it is one week. Do that several times and ....oh those wonderful lying repuubs are something, but they are NOT leaders!

Originally Posted by kevinssdad

Well. that should drop republicans on a scale of one to 19 to a minus 9, after all the promises they made about what they would do in January. This is funding what they promised not to fund even tho it is one week. Do that several times and ....oh those wonderful lying repuubs are something, but they are NOT leaders!

It's a betrayal, a total let down of the voters who sent them there. They have all fed us to the wolves.

Shame, Shame, Shame on them.