Congress will return to work Monday with only four days left to pass a Department of Homeland Security funding bill and avert a partial agency shutdown and the furlough of some 30,000 federal employees.
Most of the department’s employees would be deemed “essential” and kept working even if the Congress and President Barack Obama don’t reach agreement in time. The nation’s airports, borders and political leaders would continue to be protected during a partial shutdown.
But even those who work would be unsure of their paychecks until Congress finds a way to fund the agency beyond Feb. 27, the date when its coffers run dry.
With the clock ticking, the operative word on Capitol Hill is “stuck.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been unable to move the bill, which would provide the DHS with $40 billion through September, because of a Democratic filibuster over added language that would reverse some of Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, isn’t budging on his demand that McConnell’s Senate act on the bill passed by the House of Representatives and not look to his chamber for help.
“The House has done its job under the Constitution,” Boehner said. “It’s time for the Senate to do their job.”
Democrats and a few Republicans in both chambers are pressing for a “clean” DHS bill, without the immigration-related amendments, arguing that failing to fund the department when the Islamic State and other groups are committing terrorist acts worldwide would be political suicide.
The White House will look to keep the heat on Congress when Obama hosts a nationally televised town hall meeting on immigration Wednesday in Miami.
Even though Senate Democrats are blocking the DHS bill, most Americas likely would blame Republicans if there’s a partial shutdown, according to a CNN/ORC poll released this week.
Fifty-three percent of Americans would blame congressional Republicans for a DHS closure, while 30 percent would blame Obama, the survey found. Only 13 percent of Americans blamed both congressional Republicans and the White House.
Some lawmakers, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., think a federal judge in Texas threw Congress a lifeline this week when he issued an injunction blocking Obama’s actions to shield from deportation more than 4 million immigrants who are living in the United States illegally.
“It’s not a good idea . . . to shut down the Department of Homeland Security,” McCain said Thursday on MSNBC. “And now we’ve got a perfect reason to not shut it down because the courts have decided, at least initially, in our favor.”
But instead of softening the DHS funding/immigration debate, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s ruling appears to have hardened both sides.
“Senate Democrats – especially those who’ve voiced opposition to the president’s executive overreach – should end their partisan filibuster of Department of Homeland Security funding,” McConnell said after Hanen’s decision.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, “Democrats’ offer to first fund Homeland Security and then debate immigration stands. All Republicans have to do is say yes.”
Still, Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, thinks the court ruling could bring Democrats and Republicans to the negotiating table.
“With the judge’s decision, I imagine it would be easier for a compromise,” Sabato said. “In the end, something has to give. Do they really want to shut down the Department of Homeland Security? Are they completely insane?”
Outside groups are pressuring lawmakers to hold the line.
“What we want is for Congress to pass a clean DHS bill and for the parties to come together to pass a comprehensive immigration bill,” said Hector Sanchez, chair of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda.
Kevin Broughton, communications director for the Tea Party Patriots, said it was time for Republicans to make good on campaign vows to address Obama’s executive actions.
“The point is that Republicans last fall went hard against executive amnesty . . . ,” he said. “Now is not the time to lose your nerve.”
With the fate of the DHS funding bill uncertain, the agency is preparing for a possible partial shutdown. DHS officials said 30,000 employees – about 15 percent of its workforce – might be furloughed.
That group would include 5,500 of the Transportation Security Administration’s employees but exclude federal air marshals, who’d be exempt.
Front-line DHS divisions such as the TSA, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Coast Guard would continue to operate.
Comments