WASHINGTON—The Republican-controlled Congress struggled into the night on Friday to pass emergency legislation to keep the Homeland Security Department in full funding for one week and avert a partial shutdown threatened for midnight.
Acting without fanfare, the Senate cleared the measure less than four hours before the deadline that would have triggered a partial shutdown at the federal agency that oversees the nation’s borders. That sent the bill to the House, where only a few hours earlier, 52 rebellious Republicans unexpectedly joined with Democrats to vote down a three-week funding bill. The vote was 224-203.
Spending for the department has been held hostage in a proxy battle over President Barack Obama’s recent executive actions sparing millions of immigrants in this country illegally from deportation. Republicans won full control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
Conservatives were furious that the leadership had dropped provisions repealing Obama administration directives that shield immigrants from deportation. Democrats demanded longer-term funding as their price for passage.
“You have made a mess,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said accusingly to Republicans as the vote neared.
In the aftermath, even some Republicans agreed.
“There are terrorist attacks all over world and we’re talking about closing down Homeland Security. This is like living in a world of crazy people,” tweeted Rep. Peter King of New York, a former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.
The debacle in the House set a chain of events in motion.
First, Homeland Security officials circulated a lengthy contingency plan indicating that about 30,000 employees could expect to be furloughed without passage of funding legislation.
Then the White House announced Obama had spoken with Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. Moments later, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky strode onto the Senate floor and swiftly gained approval for the seven-day measure.
Taken together, the day’s roller-coaster events at the Capitol underscored the difficulty Republicans have had, so far, this year in translating last fall’s election gains into legislative accomplishment—a step its own leaders say is necessary to establish the party’s credentials as a responsible, governing party.
Republicans gained control of the Senate in November’s balloting, and emerged with their largest House majority in more than 70 years.
A combination of conservative, tea party-backed Republicans on one side of the political aisle and Democrats on the other brought down the funding measure.
The first group was upset because the legislation had been stripped of changes to Obama administration directives policy that shielded millions of immigrants from the threat of deportation. Democrats opposed it in overwhelming numbers because it lacked full-year funding for the sprawling department.
Pelosi and other Democrats urged Republicans both, before and after the vote, to allow debate on legislation to keep the department in funds through the September 30 end of the budget year—a step the GOP high command has so far refused to take.
Image credits: AP