Senate
Republican offers plan to avert security funding crisis
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[February 25, 2015]
By Susan Cornwell and David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate leaders
took a tentative step on Tuesday that could avert a partial shutdown of
the Department of Homeland Security, but it was unclear if House Speaker
John Boehner and restive conservatives would support a new concession to
Democrats.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was willing to hold
a vote on a Homeland Security funding bill that is free of
provisions blocking President Barack Obama's immigration actions, if
Democrats agree to vote on a stand-alone bill that halts Obama's
November immigration order.
Senate Democrats have stalled the current, House-passed Homeland
Security bill because it contains even broader restrictions on
Obama's executive actions to shield millions of undocumented
immigrants from deportation. Obama has threatened to veto the
measure.
"I do think we have a responsibility to act here. We have a solution
to the problem that deals with both things," McConnell told
reporters in the Capitol.
If the dispute is not resolved by Friday at midnight, spending
authority will be cut off for the agency, which spearheads domestic
counterterrorism efforts and secures U.S. borders, airports and
coastal waters.
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If that happens, the department's essential protective staff would
stay on the job, but there would be no money to pay them until new
funding is approved.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said he wants assurances Boehner
will bring a clean Homeland Security funding bill to a floor vote
before he will consider McConnell's plan. Otherwise, he said, the
Senate may send a "hot potato" to the House with no assurance of
passage.
"I'm waiting to hear from the speaker," Reid said. "To have Senator
McConnell just pass the ball over to the House isn’t going to do the
trick."
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Boehner spokesman Michael Steel responded that the House had acted
already on the issue and Senate Democrats should stop blocking the
House-passed bill.
Boehner is expected to discuss the issue with House Republicans on
Wednesday morning, amid signs they were divided.
Conservatives were urging Boehner to hold the line in opposing
Obama's executive immigration actions. In a letter to leadership,
the conservatives said House leaders should not view a recent Texas
court decision temporarily blocking Obama's actions as a way out of
the DHS funding impasse, because the court ruling could be
overturned.
But Republican Representative Tom Cole, a Boehner ally, told
reporters Tuesday he thought the decision cleared a path for the
House to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by John Whitesides,
David Gregorio and Cynthia Osterman)
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