For the fourth time, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was unable evening to call up a $39.7 billion House-passed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill on Monday evening amid united Democratic opposition to provisions blocking recent executive action on immigration riders.
Following the failure, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to consider a standalone bill narrowly targeting the President’s 2014 Executive Order and sparing the Administration’s 2012 action aimed only at certain young immigrants. It’s the Republican leader’s first step in trying to disentangle the immigration fight from a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
At present, it looks like the the Senate may have no choice now but to fund the agency on a short-term basis. The move towards disentanglement is designed to sway a small number of Democratic Senators towards moving the bill, while also avoiding a shut down of the security agency. Further, it avoids a shutdown of the agency and the political blame that the Republicans would face (and fear similar to what happened with the last shut down) if DHS is shut down.
If funding does lapse, there would be 30,000 furloughs while approximately 75 to 80 percent of DHS employees would have to work without pay. Historically, Congress has given essential workers back pay for the duration of a funding lapse, but such funding is certainly not guaranteed. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson warned Congress that a stopgap measure would also have consequences, including delayed improvements to border security and delayed state and local aid.
The continuing resolution funding for DHS expires on Friday.