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 With a Feb. 27 deadline looming, Republican House and Senate
leaders have been unable to agree on a strategy to extend the
spending authority of the agency charged with securing U.S. borders,
airports and coastal waters.
A House-passed version of the spending bill would de-fund Obama's
2012 and 2014 executive orders lifting the threat of deportation for
millions of undocumented immigrants. But Obama has threatened to
veto the House bill, and Democrats have blocked Senate consideration
of it in three separate votes.
The dispute has opened up Republican divisions and left the party
with unpalatable options: partially shut down the agency that leads
domestic counterterrorism efforts, pass a short-term extension that
postpones the fight or set aside the immigration battle with Obama
and approve a "clean" funding bill.
The eventual answer could offer clues to the leadership approach and
abilities of House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, who have promised the new Republican-controlled
Congress will get things done while confronting Obama. Lawmakers
left town on Friday on a 10-day holiday break with no movement from
their entrenched positions.
 Conservatives are demanding that Republicans stand firm in
challenging the immigration orders, which they see as another sign
of the president's constitutional overreach.
"I believe Congress unfortunately is in a position where it cannot
acquiesce -- because it acquiesces in a long-term alteration of the
power relationship, and it acquiesces to an unlawful act," Senator
Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, told reporters in a Capitol
hallway.
"The president has put us in a position where it's going to be
difficult to maneuver a way out," Sessions said.
"IN A FIX"
Some Republicans say the impact from a DHS funding lapse would be
minimal, as the department would continue its core protective
functions. See Factbox.
But a few moderate Republicans, who have seen the party get blamed
for past battles over shutting down the government, are beginning to
say a "clean" bill is better than a shutdown.
"I’ve been in this position before. We’re going to pass a bill at
some point that funds this and some of us are going to be accused of
being capitulators, surrenderers, squishes," said Representative
Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania.
Democrats said Republicans have painted themselves into a corner
where the only way out is to climb down or cut off funds to Homeland
Security.
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"They're in a fix. Let's see how they get themselves out of it,"
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said of Republicans.
Tea Party conservatives say their constituents disapprove of Obama's
immigration actions, and that Democrats will take the blame if
Homeland Security shuts down.
Giving up would produce an "uproar" from voters, Republican
Representative Raul Labrador said this week.
Some lawmakers hope for a reprieve from a court case in Texas, where
a federal judge has been asked by over two dozen states to block
Obama's 2014 immigration order.
Republican Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina said that
if the court rules against Obama, it would be appropriate for
lawmakers to consider funding DHS at least while the court
injunction is in effect.
In the meantime, compromise has been elusive. Last week Republican
Senator Susan Collins of Maine proposed a compromise that would only
block Obama's 2014 immigration order and not his 2012 order, but she
has found no Democratic takers.
"What I've found is that the Democrats at this point think they can
just hold fast," Collins told Reuters. "I hope there will come a
point where people realize that we've got to find a compromise that
prevents a shutdown of this important department."
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; additional reporting by David Lawder;
editing by John Whitesides and Stuart Grudgings)
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