Dem Senators Refuse to Relent on Opposition to House DHS Bill
Democratic senators again urged Republican leadership in the chamber to pass a “clean” Department of Homeland Security funding bill in comments on Feb. 10. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., led a press call to denounce Republican attempts to scale back President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also said on the Senate floor the funding impasse is threatening U.S. security (here).
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tried and failed three times over the past 10 days to get enough votes to debate a House-passed DHS funding in the Senate (see 1502040062). DHS appropriations will lapse at the end of February, and at that point all 23,775 CBP officers will start work without pay, according to Shaheen’s office, who said the figures came from the Obama administration.
Shaheen and Booker said the deadline to pass DHS funding legislation before the department shuts down is rapidly approaching, and Congress needs to address immigration at another time. McConnell tried to pass HR-240 (here), which the House passed in January. House Republicans tacked a number of policy riders on that bill to prevent implementation of Obama’s immigration action. Shaheen introduced a "clean" bill in late January (see 1501290033).
Meanwhile, McConnell called on House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Feb. 9 to act on other legislation to avert a DHS shutdown in statements to reporters (here). But on Feb. 10, McConnell took to the Senate floor to again urge lawmakers to open debate on the House legislation. “We’ve already offered a fair and open debate that would allow for amendments from both parties," said McConnell, according to remarks released by his office. “If the bill needs to be amended, that’s when it could be."