Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com file photo

DHS Spending Bill Stalls in the Senate As Deadline for a Partial Shutdown Draws Closer

Mitch McConnell now faces the same problem with his party’s right flank as Boehner does in the House.

A Department of Homeland Security funding bill failed to overcome a procedural vote 51-48 Tuesday that would have rolled back Obama's executive action on immigration and placed DREAMers and millions of other immigrants back at risk of deportation.

Now, Sen. Mitch McConnell will face his first major test as the Senate's newly minted majority leader. He'll have to try and cobble together a new coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats to pass a DHS funding bill before the Feb. 27 deadline to avoid the department shutting down. Whether he'll move forward that way, however, or continue going head-to-head with the White House is an open question.

A united Senate Democratic caucus stood against the House-passed bill Tuesday, making it impossible to overcome the 60-vote threshold McConnell needed. Nevada Sen. Dean Heller was the only Republican defection on the bill.

The bill was never expected to pass, but McConnell was embarking on a tactic House Speaker John Boehner has used across the Capitol many times.

McConnell gave conservatives like Sens. Jeff Sessions and Ted Cruz what they asked for Tuesday: a vote to defund Obama's executive action. The vote gave Republicans an opportunity to be opposed on-record to the president's power grab. But the next step will be much harder for McConnell. He will have to recalibrate conservative wishes with the political reality: Republicans captured the majority, but they don't have the votes they need to move forward without Democrats' help.

McConnell will either have to find another way to fund DHS or shut down an agency that secures the border and employees America's top cops. The senator's predicament looks a lot like those Boehner has dealt with over and over again since he became speaker in 2011. From the farm bill to funding bills, Boehner has has grown accustomed to first appeasing his conference, falling short of the votes needed, and then being forced to tune out conservative screeches to pass crucial bills.

Still, McConnell is weighing his options.

McConnell's office says that McConnell will try a second time this week to pass the DHS bill on Thursday. The office says that the language decrying the executive action will still be attached.

"I think we'll give them an opportunity to vote on that more than once," Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said. "Trying to use the procedural rules to keep from [considering the bill] is a disservice to the people who care deeply about this issue on both sides."

That scenario could yield a kind of congressional Groundhog Day with senators forced to vote repeatedly for legislation that is stuck in the Senate and doomed to be discarded if it somehow makes it to the president's desk.

But that is the fight some Republicans were looking for. Sen. Jeff Sessions and Ted Cruz have sometimes been accused of meddling in House business. And House Speaker John Boehnerchallenged them at his presser Tuesday to stand up for what they believe in.

"It's time for Senator Cruz and Senator Sessions, and Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats to stand together with the American people and block the president's actions," Boehner said.

Sessions says if Republicans don't back down, they can build the narrative that Democrats are the ones standing in the way of the funding bill, not Republicans.

"The House has done its duty. It has funded Homeland Security with $40 billion in funding and it just simply says the president can't take money that was authorized, appropriated to enforce law to undermine law," Sessions says. "If there is any problem with funding Homeland Security, it is a direct result of Democrats' obstruction."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who says he has not spent extensive time focused on the DHS funding bill, said over the years he's learned sometimes it's better to pass clean bills.

"It's a serious thing, but on the other hand if they are loading it up with things that shouldn't be in there, then you have once choice and that is to say 'get that stuff off or we are not voting for it," Hatch says.

Sen. John McCain, says he has personally sat in on "at least 20 discussions" about how to proceed when the bill inevitably failed.

"Nobody really has a strategy yet, I am sorry to say," McCain said. "I have heard about 300 options, none of them so far viable."

DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson was spotted in the Capitol meeting with lawmakers and trying to build more support for a no-frills funding bill for his agency.

"I am here to talk to any senators on both sides of the aisle who are willing to listen to me," Johnson said.

With the failure of the bill, Democrats are calling on McConnell to simply remove the contentious immigration language and proceed. They recognize he's got a lot to lose by ignoring the wishes of some in his right flank.

"He is being pushed and pulled by Ted Cruz on one side...and those on the other side of his caucus who say 'we are supposed to show responsible governance here,'" Minority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin said. "This is a moment where he gets to be majority leader."

McConnell's built his reputation as a politically savvy and pragmatic leader. Many within his party are confident that as leader, McConnell will weigh his options and then make the hard call even if it means risking damaging relationships with some of the most vocal conservatives and Republicans across the country who wanted the GOP-controlled Senate to stand up more boldly against the president.

"Sen. McConnell does everything he can to take into account the feelings of the caucus in general, but at the same time, he's pretty prone to not want to end up in a boxed canyon, and again, he can count," Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker says. "You got to figure out how to get to a place that resolves the issue. He's one of the best at that that I know."

Adding to McConnell's pressures are the optics of failing to fully fund DHS when Americans are keenly aware of the growing terrorism threats from groups like the Islamic State. The Obama administration is hoping that sense of urgency will force McConnell to stare down a handful of conservatives and pass a funding bill sooner rather than later.

"This is trying times right now, and we need a clean appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security," Johnson said.

(Image via Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com)

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.