Senate frozen amid DHS fight
The GOP-controlled Senate is looking a lot like last yearâs Democratic Senate: failed procedural votes, short and fruitless workweeks and prolonged periods of inactivity on the floor. The reason: The stubborn impasse on Homeland Security funding has sapped the chamberâs ability to do much else for the past two weeks, aside from some small-bore legislation. And as lawmakers skip town for a 10-day recess, some Republicans worry that the fight could drag on far past the Feb. 27 shutdown deadline â particularly if Congress ends up passing a short-term funding Band-Aid that merely sets up another cliff. Story Continued Below Many in the Capitol see a short-term extension as the most likely solution to keeping the Department of Homeland Securityâs funding from running out at the end of the month, especially with the chambers deadlocked on language that would roll back President Barack Obamaâs immigration policies. But Senate Republicans are already expressing frustration that theyâve wasted too much time trying to appease their House counterparts by voting repeatedly on the same doomed DHS bill, which Democrats have filibustered three times. High-ranking GOP senators are sending a warning flare to the House: The only thing worse than missing the first deadline of the year would be fighting this battle all over again in March or April. âWeâve got to get off this. Weâve got to get it behind us. We have to at some point bring it to closure,â said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Senate Republican. A short-term DHS funding deal âwould be a bad outcome for the Senate just in terms of us being to do other things. â¦ If we have to do a short-term extension, weâve got to revisit this. The next time it comes over, it will take another couple weeks.â The partisan stalemate is also undermining Republicansâ attempts to show they can run Congress effectively as they head into a tough fight to keep the Senate in 2016. âThis battle should be ended,â said Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who wants a DHS funding bill with none of the immigration riders that the House attached to its version in January. âWhen we were given the honor of the majority, we have to govern wisely. Shutdowns are not wise policy for key national security-related departments.â Asked for his solution to the stalemate, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) responded: âTake the same time weâre doing this and pass an immigration bill. Thatâs what I want.â âWe could be doing a lot of things,â added Flake, who had helped broker a deal for comprehensive immigration reform that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) spurned in the last Congress. But other ideas for resolving the standoff are in short supply. House conservatives on Thursday floated a lead trial balloon calling for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to gut the Senateâs legislative filibuster, which Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) had to awkwardly shoot down at a joint House and Senate Republican news conference. Instead, McConnell is setting up a fourth failed vote on the thrice-filibustered House bill after members return on Feb. 23. Though House and Senate lawmakers in both parties despise the idea of a short-term extension, continually relitigating the funding fight would be particularly painful for Senate Republicans, both functionally and politically. It took McConnell a month to pass the Keystone XL pipeline bill because of his desire to allow an open amendment process, so any short-term DHS bill would serve only to further delay Republican priorities like Obamacare repeal, tax reform and new trade deals. Republicans also donât want to add anything else to their already full plate of deadlines, especially in the Senate, where one lawmaker can cause days of delays for legislation. And after Feb. 27, the deadlines come fast: By March 31, Medicare providers face steep cuts in their payments unless Congress passes a law to head them off. Then transportation funding runs out in May, and in June some portions of the Patriot Act expire. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans aim to pass a budget this spring and begin writing appropriations bills for each arm of government â contentious debates that will take lots of time. And raising the debt ceiling looms in the summer or fall. With that workload in mind, a CR that creates another Homeland Security deadline is not on the top of Republicansâ wish list. âIt only postpones the problem. It just kicks the can down the road,â said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). âAnother cliff. It doesnât solve anything.â Though the GOP Senate has looked much like its gridlocked Democratic predecessor, party leaders have emphasized that Februaryâs stalemate does not mean a revival of the do-nothing Senate. This month, the Senate confirmed a new defense secretary and drug czar and passed bills aimed at preventing suicide among veterans and aiding victims of child pornography. None of those required much debate â and all but the confirmation of defense secretary nominee Ash Carter passed unanimously. Yet even within the Republican caucus thereâs been turbulence about the multitasking, even on those less contentious items. Some conservatives argue that the Senate should do nothing but let Democrats sit on the obstructionist hot seat, an argument that has not gained much traction as most Republicans try to look past the DHS battle. âI donât think we should shut the place down,â said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who has big plans for tax reform and trade. âWeâve got to continue to do our work and not get distracted.â Republican leaders admit that the chamber hasnât been the paragon of legislative debate that it was when the Senate was taking scores of amendments on Keystone last month. But if anyoneâs to blame for the lack of movement on major legislation this month, Republican say, itâs Democrats who wonât let the Senate debate the Houseâs immigration-DHS package. âIt is frustrating that the Democrats have filibustered the bill,â said Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn of Texas. âThis is the kind of dysfunction that voters repudiated in November. And to sort of fall back into these same bad habits is a little frustrating. But I think its just a temporary bump in the road.â