Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled a two-step plan Tuesday to avoid a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which runs out of money Friday if Congress fails to act.
McConnell, R-Ky., said he’s willing to hold a vote on a bill funding the department free of provisions to roll back President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration – a demand by Senate Democrats. The Senate also would vote on a separate measure to halt Obama’s November 2014 action that, among other things, would defer deportations of millions of immigrants living in the country illegally.
“I’ve indicated to the Democratic leader that I’d be happy to have his cooperation to advance the consideration of a clean DHS bill which would carry us through to Sept. 30,” McConnell told reporters. “I don’t know what’s not to like about this.”
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that the administration stands ready to talk with lawmakers about the bill but added that “we shouldn’t compromise our homeland security just because Republicans want to pick a fight.”
“We’re hopeful that Republicans will do the responsible thing, that they join Democrats to support a full-year extension of funding for the Department of Homeland Security prior to the deadline,” Earnest said.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., approached McConnell’s offer cautiously, saying he wants to know how it will play in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
The House passed a $40 billion DHS funding bill last month that also contained language attacking Obama’s immigration actions. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and most of his caucus have insisted to the point of profanity that the Senate vote on their bill.
House Republicans feel that the immigration riders in their bill give them leverage against the White House on immigration.
If Congress doesn’t approve DHS funding by Feb. 27, the agency will furlough some 30,000 workers. The department’s agencies – which include the Border Patrol, the Secret Service, the Coast Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement – would continue to operate during a shutdown with employees who wouldn’t receive paychecks.
“I’m waiting to hear from the speaker,” Reid said. “You know, we have to make sure that people understand the bicameral nature of this Congress that we serve in. So to have Sen. McConnell just pass the ball over to the House isn’t going to do the trick. I’m waiting to hear from the speaker.”
Michael Steel, Boehner’s spokesman, said in an email: “The speaker has been clear: The House has acted, and now Senate Democrats need to stop hiding. Will they continue to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security or not.”
McConnell’s plan faces a tough sell in the House and among conservatives, many of whom will gather in suburban Washington on Wednesday for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, one of the House’s most vocal opponents of Obama’s immigration policies, tweeted, “Senators arguing fund DHS but vote a separate bill to defund executive amnesty. Have you heard of Obama veto? Think we were born yesterday?”
“Senators want separate bill to defund exec amnesty,” King wrote in another tweet. “Fine, when & only when Obama signs bill to defund exec amnesty, we will then fund DHS.”
Heritage Action, the political arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, frowned on McConnell’s plan. Michael Needham, Heritage Action’s CEO, said the group will score negatively any vote for a DHS bill that “would allow for the funding of the president’s unconstitutional amnesty.”
“Further exposing the blatant hypocrisy of Senate Democrats is no substitute for stopping President Obama’s dangerous and unlawful amnesty,” Needham said in a statement. “As the majority leader said last year, the power of the purse is the ‘only tool’ Congress has to rein in executive overreach.”
Still, Several Senate Republicans express support for McConnell’s strategy.
“I like it,” said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., “But there are some who feel we still need to restrict that funding.”
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., one of the Senate’s main critics on Obama’s immigration actions, said he’ll consider McConnell’s plan, but “I remain firmly convinced that Congress should put the heat where it belongs and that’s on the president who’s overreached.”