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 A Republican-authored DHS spending bill with immigration
restrictions failed to win the 60 votes needed to advance in the
Senate, setting up a showdown over the Feb. 27 expiration of funding
for the agency.
No clear path forward had emerged by late on Tuesday afternoon. Some
House Republicans were discussing a proposal to fund parts of the
agency, except for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said
Arizona Representative Matt Salmon, a conservative.
USCIS is the key department charged with implementing Obama's
November order to lift the threat of deportation for millions of
undocumented immigrants.
Salmon and other House Republicans said they want their party, which
now also controls the Senate, to keep fighting for the House-passed
DHS funding plan and bring public pressure to bear on Democrats.
"I hope the Senate has the ability to keep bringing it up," he said.
"They can do Chinese water torture on them (the Democrats) and keep
bringing it up."
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell switched to "no" on the 51-48
vote in a maneuver that keeps the bill alive for further votes this
week. Republican Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, a state with a large
immigrant population, voted with Democrats to block the bill.
Obama and Democrats demanded a DHS funding bill devoid of
immigration restrictions, citing heightened terrorist threats.
"We’ll wind up passing a clean bill," said Senate Democratic leader
Harry Reid. "Why do we wait, why do we agonize?"
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House Speaker John Boehner told Republican lawmakers in a
closed-door meeting earlier on Tuesday that "this is the fight, so
now let's fight," said Republican Representative John Carter.
Boehner declined to say how Republicans would proceed if the Senate
cannot pass the House bill.
"The goal here is not to run DHS out of money. The goal is to stop
the president's overreach," Boehner told a news briefing.
Some Republicans are willing to accept a lapse in funding for DHS.
Representative Raul Labrador of Idaho said Obama would take the
blame, not Republicans.
While much of DHS' security functions have been deemed essential and
will continue to operate if funding lapses, the agency has said it
would be forced to furlough about 30,000 employees, or 15 percent of
its workforce.
(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards; Editing by John Whitesides
and James Dalgleish)
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