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 Several prominent Republicans said on Thursday there should be no
interruption in funding for the Department of Homeland Security,
which is tasked with preventing attacks on U.S. soil and with
securing the country's borders, airports and coastal waters.
The agency's funding expires on Feb. 27. Republican leaders had
planned to use the deadline as leverage to challenge Obama's new
program shielding millions of undocumented immigrants from
deportation.
Such a move would likely draw a White House veto, risking a cut-off
in DHS funding.
Some moderate Republicans said they need to tread carefully on DHS
funding after Wednesday's attack by two Islamist gunmen killed 12 at
the offices of the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
 "I'm against the executive order, and we should stop it, fine, but
we cannot in any way weaken our homeland security funding when it
comes to counterterrorism," said Representative Peter King, a senior
Republican member of the House Homeland Security committee. "You
can't afford to cut back $1."
House Speaker John Boehner will hold a closed-door meeting with
Republican lawmakers on Friday to discuss handling of the DHS
funding deadline, with plans for a vote next week.
Boehner told a news conference that the House "will soon take
action" aimed at stopping Obama's executive order but gave no
details, other than to say this would not put DHS funding at risk.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers said the plan
was still under discussion, though he hopes to introduce a bill on
Friday that seeks to fully meet the Obama administration's DHS
funding request while blocking implementation of the immigration
order. If it were vetoed, Obama would take the blame for cutting off
DHS funds, he said.
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Another plan would use a stand-alone bill to block funds from being
spent to implement the immigration order. King said that a quick
vote on the DHS funding plan would leave Republicans some time for
revisions before the Feb. 27 deadline in case of a veto.
Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina conservative,
said the Paris attack showed the need for Homeland Security funding
but Congress should still "send a message" to Obama on immigration.
"I don't think the two are mutually exclusive," he added.
(Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Caren Bohan, Cynthia Osterman
and Ken Wills)
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