Stopgap DHS funding bill fails in House
Stopgap DHS funding bill fails in House
Published February 27, 2015 FoxNews.com
http://a57.foxnews.com/global.fncsta....jpg?ve=1&tl=1
NOW PLAYINGFocus on immigration in battle over DHS funding
DEVELOPING ...
A stopgap bill to keep money flowing to the Homeland Security Department past a midnight deadline failed in the House late Friday, in a surprise turn of events that again raises the possibility of a partial agency shutdown.
The bill was defeated on a 203-224 vote.
ORIGINAL STORY ...
Congress, facing an imminent partial shutdown of the Homeland Security Department, was preparing Friday to do what it does best: punt.
At an impasse over a long-term funding bill, a plan was swiftly emerging for lawmakers to approve a time-buying, three-week stopgap. House Republicans put the idea on the table late Thursday and are hoping to muscle it through the chamber and send it over to the Senate by the end of the day -- just making the midnight deadline to keep the money flowing to DHS.
That plan could still go sour, as many House Democrats are opposed to another short-term bridge. Indeed, House leaders called a brief recess Friday afternoon amid some difficulty lining up the votes, though the House is now back in session.
But if Speaker John Boehner can push it through, largely on Republican votes, sources say the Senate would likely approve it. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest also said President Obama would sign it.
"It's the best solution that we have available to us right now," said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark. "Nobody wants to shut down the Department of Homeland Security."
Left unresolved, however, is how Congress would fund DHS through the rest of the year and whether Republicans have any path to extract their central demand -- reversing Obama's controversial immigration executive actions.
Originally, Republicans wanted to require those actions be reversed as a condition for funding DHS. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has already abandoned that effort, meeting Democrats' demands to deal with the two issues separately.
But many House Republicans still want to fight, and use the DHS budget as leverage to extract the immigration concession.
As Congress moves to pass a stopgap, the Senate on Friday approved a longer-term DHS funding bill. However, House Republicans stopped the bill in its tracks, voting instead for a so-called conference committee -- a way for lawmakers to hammer out a compromise measure.
But Senate Democrats have called this a "non-starter," and they could have the leverage to block it. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats on Friday also blocked a separate bill undoing Obama's immigration actions.
The complicated debate underscored the lingering divisions among the Republican caucus over how far to take their fight against Obama's immigration plan, which gives millions of illegal immigrants work permits and a deportation reprieve.
Some argue that with a federal judge, for now, blocking the plan from going forward, there's less urgency to use legislation to achieve the same goal. Other conservative Republicans say the legislation is necessary.
"I am not going to vote under any circumstances to fund illegal conduct," said Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala. "It does not make any difference whether the funding is for three weeks, three months or a full fiscal year. If it's illegal, it's illegal."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015...n-dhs-funding/
