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Homeland Security heads toward shutdown as House fails to pass 3-week spending bill Senate moves to avert DHS shutdown after House GOP bill fails
(about 2 hours later)
The House failed to pass a 20-day stopgap bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security Friday, hurtling the agency toward a midnight shutdown deadline with no clear resolution in sight. The Senate moved late Friday to try to pull the Department of Homeland Security back from the brink of a partial shutdown after the House failed to pass a 20-day stopgap funding bill, hurtling the agency toward a critical midnight deadline.
Most Democrats and 52 Republicans voted against the measure in a nail-biter decision that stretched on for more than 40 minutes. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) appeared on the Senate floor just before 8:30 p.m. to announce a one-week stopgap bill that was passed by a voice vote. Senior Republicans held out hope the House would follow suit before the looming shutdown deadline.
The outcome leaves DHS just hours away from a partial shutdown in which non-essential employees would begin face furloughs. The outcome is a major defeat for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who has struggled to govern even as Republicans hold unified control of Congress. The House vote was a stunning failure for a bill that was a last-ditch attempt to keep DHS running as the Senate and House remained at odds over a longer-term bill. The defeat was a major blow to Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), whose struggles to get unruly members to fall in line have continued in the new Congress. More broadly, it was an early black eye for the unified Republican majority that had vowed to govern effectively.
The House GOP plan, which failed on a 203-224 vote, was meant as fallback proposal that Boehner put forth because the House and Senate have been unable to reach an agreement on a more lasting funding bill. All but a dozen Democrats who voted rejected the measure, as did 52 Republicans, in a tense procedure that stretched on for more than 40 minutes. Democrats have demanded a long-term funding bill that does not go after President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. Republicans want to use the DHS debate to fight Obama on immigration.
Speaking on the House floor after the vote, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told members they should stand by for possible additional votes later Friday or during the weekend. Boehner hoped to give lawmakers more time to break that impasse with his stopgap bill, which the Senate signaled it would pass if the House did. But his plans were spoiled once again, mostly by a faction of rogue conservatives at odds with his strategy.
Before the vote, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who represents a long stretch of the nation’s border with Mexico, said he was concerned that a Homeland Security shutdown would be devastating to the flow of goods -- particularly perishable fruits and vegetables -- across the border. “Our leadership set the stage for this,” complained Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), who voted against the measure and argued that last year’s debate over funding the entire federal government was the time and place to do battle with the president. “That’s where we had the best chance and opportunity.”
But he said he didn’t plan to vote for the three-week extension, noting that the delay would not change the political fundamentals of the impasse. In November, Obama announced the executive actions granting temporary relief from deportation to more than 4 million immigrants in the country illegally. Republicans accused him of overstepping his legal authority.
“The bullet must get bit by Boehner,” he said. “It either gets bit tonight ... or it gets bit in three weeks.” House Democrats rallied against the bill Friday, arguing that a delay would only put off the inevitable: another 11th-hour standoff on March 19 and pressure from them to pass a “clean” bill with no immigration provisions.
The Senate passed its own bill Friday morning that would fund DHS through September and would not touch Obama’s immigration directives. The House passed a bill weeks ago that would fund DHS for the same period and would undo Obama’s directives. “The bullet must get bit by Boehner,” said Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who represents a long stretch of the nation’s border with Mexico and who voted no. “It either gets bit tonight . . . or it gets bit in three weeks.”
Resistance in both chambers to the other one’s bill left lawmakers scrambling for an interim solution. The stopgap bill would have funded DHS through March 19. After the vote, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took to the House floor to announce that additional votes were possible later Friday or over the weekend.
The House passed a measure earlier Friday afternoon to go to conference with the Senate to hash out the differences between their long-term bills. No Democrats voted for it. Senate Democrats oppose a conference. In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) called on House Republicans to take up a bill the Senate passed Friday morning that would fund DHS through September and would not touch Obama’s immigration directives.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Obama would sign a short-term bill, even though he would prefer a lengthier one. “Now is the time to drop the partisan political games and come together to avoid a Homeland Security shutdown for the good of our country,” he said.
“If president is faced with a choice of having the Department of Homeland Security shut down or fund that department for a short term, the president is not going to allow the agency to shut down,” said Earnest. The House has so far resisted that bill. It passed its own measure weeks ago that would fund DHS for the same period and that would also undo Obama’s immigration actions. Senate Democrats have blocked that bill.
The speaker summoned his top lieutenants to a meeting in his office Friday afternoon as Republicans planned to move ahead on the stopgap bill, but there were signs that securing enough Republican votes remained a concern. The House passed a measure Friday afternoon to go to conference with the Senate to hash out the differences between their long-term bills. No Democrats voted for it. Senate Democrats oppose a conference.
Democratic resistance complicated matters, though House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) conceded Friday morning that “Republicans probably” had the votes to pass the bill to keep the department open. The stopgap bill seemed to many to be the last best option of avoiding a partial shutdown. Senate Democratic aides acknowledged that the bill would probably have passed their chamber if it had cleared the House. White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Friday that Obama would sign a short-term bill, even though he would prefer a lengthier one.
But she called the measure a “staggering failure of leadership that will prolong this manufactured crisis of theirs and endanger the security of the American people.” “If the president is faced with a choice of having the Department of Homeland Security shut down or fund that department for a short term, the president is not going to allow the agency to shut down,” Earnest said.
Pelosi’s remarks came after House Democratic leaders huddled with rank-and-file members. Leaving the meeting, some expressed sharp opposition to the stopgap measure. As it braced for a potential shutdown, DHS issued a 46-page document Friday titled “Procedures Relating to a Lapse in Appropriations.” Nonessential DHS employees would begin facing furloughs if the agency were to partially shutter. In attempts to pressure Republicans to pass a “clean” long-term funding bill, Democrats have routinely invoked the threat of the Islamic State and other dangers the United States is confronting.
“This is a gimmick. This is a waste of time,” said Rep. Nita M. Lowey (N.Y.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. “We need a one-year bill and that’s it.” Signs emerged early in the day that Boehner was having trouble getting the votes he needed. He summoned his top lieutenants to a meeting in his office Friday afternoon amid nervousness about the bill.
Senate Democratic aides acknowledged that the bill would probably have passed their chamber if it had cleared the House. After the vote, some moderate Republicans and some Democrats expressed frustration with the actions of their hard-line conservative colleagues.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) put forward the Senate bill that passed Friday morning after it became clear the long-term House bill would not advance in his chamber. McConnell’s strategy has been panned by some House conservatives bent on battling Obama on immigration. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) said the fact that the Conservative Political Action Conference was simultaneously underway in suburban Maryland fueled the conservative mutiny.
As they left Thursday’s House GOP meeting, Republican members said their leadership presented its plan as a way to get to conference with the Senate on their competing bills. “They’re going to go up and pound their chest,” he said. “That’s what this is about. Safety second, bravado first.”
[Obama staying out of the GOP crossfire in shutdown fight] The final margin was also decided by more than a dozen Republicans whose support the leadership can usually count on, including four Virginia Republicans who were close allies of former majority leader Eric Cantor. Cantor stunningly lost his 2014 primary to now-Rep. Dave Brat, who ran to Cantor’s right on immigration. Brat voted no on the stopgap bill.
McConnell also tried to move forward Friday morning to consideration of a standalone measure that would undo Obama’s 2014 immigration actions, including stemming the deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants, but was blocked by Democrats. That bill is an effort to assuage conservatives in both chambers. Firm Democratic resistance complicated matters. Echoing Reid, House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) called on Boehner to take up the Senate bill after the stopgap bill was rejected.
“Remember: President Obama said more than 20 times he couldn’t take those kinds of actions. He even referred to overreach like that as ‘ignoring the law,’ ” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “Surely there are 30 Republicans who will vote to fund Department of Homeland Security. I’m confident of that,” he said.
Senate Democratic leaders say they want to see DHS fully funded before they clear the way for consideration on the immigration bill. Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), who voted for the stopgap bill, called the Friday’s session a “significant emotional event” for House Republicans.
Democrats have pointed to dangers the United States is confronting as the DHS debate is unfolding. They have cited the threat of the Islamic State, the mass shooting at a French satirical newspaper and concerns about disaster preparedness as reasons why Congress should not delay passage of “clean” bill that funds DHS through September. Womack, as many others, didn’t see any easy way out.
At least one member has said he would forgo pay during a DHS shutdown, in solidarity with nonessential employees facing the prospect of a furlough. “Everybody who hasn’t hit ‘Miller Time’ yet knows that we probably were going to be in this spot in three weeks anyway,” he said.
“As long as the employees of the Department of Homeland Security including Border Patrol, Coast Guard and TSA are working while not receiving paychecks, I will ask that my paycheck be withheld,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said in a Thursday statement. Paul Kane contributed to this report.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), a conservative critic of GOP leadership, said Thursday that Boehner is handling the DHS fight “as best as can be expected.” But in a sign of lingering House-Senate tension, Huelskamp lashed out at McConnell.
“Harry Reid’s still in charge. There are going to be millions of folks that helped change the Senate from Democrat to Republican [who] are going to be disappointed in Senator McConnell,” he said.
Paul Kane contributed to this story.