Wall Street Journal
By Kristina Peterson
February 25, 2015
The
Senate prepared to move forward on a bill extending the Department of
Homeland Security’s funding as soon as Wednesday afternoon, while top
House Republicans said
their chamber would wait for the Senate to act.
Senate
Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said Democrats would support a
bill extending Homeland Security funding beyond its Friday midnight
expiration.
“We’re
going to do everything we can to make sure it passes by an overwhelming
vote. I think virtually every Democrat will vote for that,” Mr. Reid
said following a closed-door
meeting of Senate Democrats.
Over
conservative opposition, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.,
Ky.) had offered earlier this week to hold separate votes on the funding
and a bill blocking
President Barack Obama ’s November action, which bypassed Congress, to
provide work permits and safe harbor from deportation for some illegal
immigrants. Until earlier this week, Republicans had yoked the two
together to use the funding deadline as leverage
to demand immigration concessions from Democrats.
Senate
Democrats had been skeptical of Mr. McConnell’s offer, noting that no
final deal could be reached without cooperation from House Republicans.
Still, they were likely
to support passing the funding bill in the absence of GOP procedural
tricks, Senate Democratic aides said. The bill would require 60 votes to
clear the first procedural hurdle.
“Of
course we’re going to vote for clean funding,” said Sen. Claire
McCaskill (D., Mo.). But she said that the Senate’s action alone
wouldn’t prevent a funding lapse.
“There clearly is a problem between [House Speaker John] Boehner and McConnell,” she said.
Meanwhile,
Mr. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said House Republicans would stand
behind the bill the House passed last month, which had merged funding
for the department
through September with additional measures rolling back several of Mr.
Obama’s immigration policies. Senate Democrats have blocked
consideration of the House bill in four separate roll-call votes.
“I’m
waiting for the Senate to act. The House has done its job,” Mr. Boehner
told reporters Wednesday. “Until the Senate does something, we’re in a
wait-and-see mode.”
But
it was clear that a Homeland Security funding bill stripped of
immigration measures would face stiff resistance in the House.
“I
wouldn’t be able to support legislation that funded the Department of
Homeland Security without those [immigration] riders,” said Rep. Luke
Messer of Indiana, a member
of House Republican leadership.
Some
House Republicans said that Mr. Boehner would face a backlash from
conservatives if he brought a funding bill to the House floor that
didn’t also seek to challenge
Mr. Obama on immigration.
“I
can’t see how it would pass. Our base would be extremely angry,” said
Rep. John Fleming (R., La.). “To cave at this point, on this bill, I
think our leadership sees
real danger in doing that.”
House
Republicans said Mr. Boehner told them Wednesday morning that he hadn’t
spoken to Mr. McConnell for two weeks. But aides said staff for the two
top Republicans are
in daily contact and noted that Congress had been in recess for one of
those weeks.
Still,
the comment suggested that each leader was giving the other room to
placate his own rank-and-file for now, with days left until the funding
deadline could force
them to make unpopular compromises.
“Sen. McConnell has a big job to do. So do I,” Mr. Boehner said, when asked about his comment.
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