Democrats filibuster Department of Homeland Security bill
As expected, Senate Democrats blocked a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday â protesting GOP-written provisions that would gut years of the Obama administrationâs directives on immigration. The unanswered question remains: What comes next? Story Continued Below Top Republicans strongly indicated that theyâll try to bring up the House-passed DHS funding bill again after it failed to advance on a 51-48 vote Tuesday, but they offered little clarity on how the new GOP-led Congress will ultimately produce legislation that doesnât prompt a veto threat from the White House. Indeed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) re-filed cloture on the same bill Tuesday night â a rare procedural move that would effectively allow three more votes to advance the DHS measure and force Democrats to repeatedly block the legislation. House Republicans have been pushing McConnell to hold multiple votes, and he seems to recognize that he needs to show House conservatives that virtually no bill can pass the Senate if it hamstrings the presidentâs immigration policies. âI think weâll give them an opportunity to vote on that more than one time,â John Thune of South Dakota, the third-ranking Senate Republican, said before the vote. âJust using the procedural rules to keep us from even debating it I think is just â I mean itâs just a disservice to people who care deeply about this issue on both sides.â During a weekly party lunch on Tuesday, Republicans engaged in a long and robust discussion about next options â but they reached no consensus on how to proceed. A number of senators argued that Democrats were in an untenable position by blocking Homeland Security funding â and would eventually cave. Others said it made little sense to push the matter to the brink when the GOP didnât have the votes to overcome a filibuster, much less a veto. McConnell offered little information about his thinking, senators said. In the room, the two wings of the party seemed to agree on one fallback option: Limit the immigration rider so it targets only the post-election executive action that President Barack Obama took last fall. That would mean dropping the Houseâs attack on a 2012 directive that deferred deportations for people brought illegally to the country at a young age. Both moderate Maine Sen. Susan Collins and conservative Texas Sen. Ted Cruz seemed on board with that approach, several senators said. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican who could face a tough reelection bid, agreed with limiting the immigration rider to the 2014 policy. âIt was far more narrow and thus I think arguably more consistent with the executive authority that the president has,â Collins said of the 2012 directive called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. âBut the 2014 order is not even a close call.â But multiple senior Senate Democratic aides quickly panned that proposal. McConnell has to marshal at least half a dozen Democratic votes to clear legislation through his chamber â yet Democrats donât plan to give McConnell any votes for a measure short of a so-called clean bill to fund DHS through the end of the fiscal year. To underscore that point, Senate Democrats held a news conference earlier Tuesday at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters â flanked by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and FEMA administrator Craig Fugate â to demand a funding bill for DHS with no riders that would override Obamaâs actions on immigration. Johnson was also on the Hill on Tuesday, stopping by the Senate Democratsâ lunch to talk about funding for his department. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) dismissed Republican arguments that Democrats should take up the bill to change it, saying: âThatâs like haggling over the price of ransom with hostage-takers.â GOP senators have said little publicly on what their fallback strategy would be when the House-passed DHS funding bill met an inevitable death in the Senate. The possibilities that have been mulled include short-term funding measures, a lawsuit challenging Obamaâs actions and the passage of border-security legislation â although that last option has been panned by some conservatives who suspect that it would be a gateway to broader immigration legislation. The legislation that Democrats blocked Tuesday passed the GOP-controlled House in January. It would give $39.7 billion to DHS, whose funding is scheduled to run out Feb. 27 under a deadline that Congress set so that the new Republican majority could litigate Obamaâs immigration actions through the must-pass bill. The parties have little disagreement on the funding levels for DHS, but Republicans are insisting on provisions that would effectively gut years of Obamaâs actions on immigration â including a 2012 initiative that has shielded more than 600,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation and given them work permits, and actions last fall that would expand the same protections to millions of more immigrants who are here illegally but have children who are U.S. citizens or green-card holders. The House plan would also override a series of immigration enforcement directives dating back to 2011. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) broke with his party to filibuster the legislation, along with all Senate Democrats. âInstead of addressing the issue of immigration reform comprehensively, the bill before us today only includes language that complicates the process of finding a solution,â he said in a statement. Senate Republicans have also tried to pressure several moderate Democratic senators who have publicly criticized Obamaâs immigration actions, but who have indicated they wonât vote with the GOP to overturn them. In the House, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) singled out moderate Senate Democrats such as Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Joe Donnelly of Indiana who opposed the unilateral actions last year but are calling for a clean funding bill this year. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said those moderate Democrats are the âpart of the palace guard that protects the president and his unlawful act.â âThatâs precisely what it amounts to,â Sessions added. âA palace guard circling around the White House to protect the president, even though members of this Senate have said he overreached and what he did was wrong.â Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who also criticized Obamaâs actions last fall during her reelection bid, said those positions were not inconsistent. She said Congress shouldnât have an immigration-focused battle tied to funding for a key department. âThe issue that Iâm arguing is not the presidentâs executive action,â Shaheen, who is now the top Democrat on the panel in charge of DHS funding, said Tuesday â a point underscored by McCaskill. âIf you want to have a fight about that, letâs have an immigration debate.â One Republican said there was really no plan beyond having another vote to show the House that the bill wonât pass. âDonât you love vision?â the senator said with a laugh.