Lawmakers look for way out of DHS funding impasse
WASHINGTON — Congress has just five days to once again avert a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. There is no deal yet, but momentum is building toward a vote later this week on a Senate-approved bill to fund DHS through the fiscal year.
The Senate rejected Monday the latest attempt by House Republicans to trigger formal negotiations on the DHS funding measure over their opposition to President Obama's executive orders on immigration.
The 47-43 vote failed to overcome a 60-vote threshold in the face of unified Democratic opposition. The Senate then voted, 58-31, to send its bill back to the House. Among those who voted in favor were a number of Republicans, a sign of the increasing pressure on the House GOP to act.
"We will not go to conference because it would just be totally counterproductive," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pushing instead for the House to pass the Senate-approved bill this week. "House Republicans have no intention of using that conference to craft legislation that would pass both chambers of Congress."
Congress narrowly prevented a shutdown last Friday night when they reached agreement on a seven-day stopgap bill to keep DHS operating. That funding expires at midnight Friday.
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McConnell wants the GOP-controlled Congress to approve the DHS funding bill and move on, while House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, remains under pressure from conservatives to continue fighting the administration on the orders. Republicans have yet to come up with legislation that can overcome a Democratic filibuster or a presidential veto.
The bipartisan Senate-approved bill would fund the full agency through September. That bill is free of any amendments included in House-passed legislation that would derail President Obama's executive orders on immigration protecting about 4 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. Boehner remains under pressure to put the Senate bill on the floor, where it could likely pass on the weight of Democratic votes.
The DHS showdown is likely to take a brief reprieve Tuesday for the joint-session address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. House Republicans are likely to huddle privately on the DHS bill on Wednesday to determine the next move.
House Democrats may be the key to resolving the impasse. When asked how Boehner could end the impasse, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Democrats could provide most of the votes for passage.
"Work with us," he said, "We have 188 members."
A rarely used House rule could provide a resolution. With the Senate's rejection of the GOP's offer to start formal negotiations, the rule could be invoked which establishes that the two chambers are in disagreement on a bill.
That status opens the door for any House lawmaker to make a motion to agree with the Senate — a loophole that could allow any member, including a Democrat, to force a vote. Every Democrat has said they will support the Senate-passed funding bill, which would mean they would need to enlist the support of roughly 30 House Republicans.
A senior GOP aide who requested anonymity said the path forward on resolving DHS funding isn't settled but that using the procedural loophole is "a live wire" and remains an option.
House Republican leaders have balked at taking up the Senate bill in part because of a strong bloc of about 50 immigration hardliners in the GOP caucus who won't vote for any bill that does not cut off funding for Obama's immigration orders.
"Since the beginning of this debate, I have said that I would never vote to fund something I believed to be unconstitutional, even for one day," said Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz. "I kept that promise by voting against a bill that funded the president's illegal executive actions on amnesty. ... I pledge to continue this fight."
Other House Republicans are fed up with that posture.
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said it's time to stop "trying to placate a small group of phony conservative members who have no credible policy proposals and no political strategy."
Another option for lawmakers this week, which is strongly opposed by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, is for Congress to pass another short-term spending measures.
The problem with that, Johnson and others have said, is that the temporary spending measures don't allow the department to sign contracts, hire employees, buy new equipment, or send grants to local law enforcement agencies.
"In addition to hurting our national security and public safety, this kind of crisis budgeting costs taxpayers millions of dollars in lost productivity and hiring freezes," said Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, the senior Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "Contracts will also have to be renegotiated at higher, not lower, costs to taxpayers."
For example, Carper said, the U.S Coast Guard will have to delay a $600 million contract to build a ship from being awarded.
"This cutter is critical to stopping illegal activity off of our shores and ports of entry, including illegal immigration and drug and human trafficking," Carper said.
DHS includes the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection, the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The uncertainty over funding threatens to hurt business travel by disrupting the budget of the TSA and its trusted traveler programs, which help speed pre-cleared business travelers through security checkpoints, travel industry officials said.
"The failure to pass a full-year funding bill could unnecessarily disrupt business travel, an industry that will account for $310 billion in spending during 2015, directly impacting the economy," said Michael McCormick, executive director of the Global Business Travel Association. "For the sake of our economy at large, Congress must stop moving from crisis to crisis."