WASHINGTON — Two days after a Texas judge halted President Obama’s executive action on immigration, nothing seemed to have changed Wednesday in the congressional showdown over funding the Department of Homeland Security.

The DHS runs out of cash on Feb. 28, and Democrats and Republicans appear as dug in as ever on the appropriations bill. A House-passed measure would block Obama’s executive action, as well as a number of other immigration provisions, including an earlier executive action on child immigrants.

But that House bill has gone exactly nowhere in the Senate, with three failed cloture votes on the motion to proceed yielding zero Democratic votes.

After a week of recess, both chambers return next week, and the Senate is scheduled to take another vote on Feb. 23 – just in case the fourth time is the charm.

Absent a sudden change of heart, however, the Senate will be no closer to passing a DHS funding bill than they were more than a month ago when the House sent over its version of the legislation. And even though Senate GOP leadership has alluded to the fact the House might want to send over a new bill – perhaps one without conservative provisions blocking the president’s executive action – House Republicans have been just as insistent that it’s the Senate’s turn to act.

“The House has passed a bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security and blocks President Obama’s executive overreach on immigration,” Speaker John A. Boehner’s press secretary, Michael Steel, told CQ Roll Call Wednesday.

Advertisement

“Hopefully, the court’s action will convince Senate Democrats to drop their filibuster and allow the Senate to begin debate on that bill.”

The official line from Boehner’s office, even after the Texas court injunction, remains the same. This is a problem of Senate Democrats’ making, they say, and Senate Democrats will be to blame if the DHS experiences a lapse in funding.

On Sunday, Boehner told Fox News he was “certainly” ready to let DHS slip into a shutdown.

“The House has acted,” the Ohio Republican said. “We’ve done our job.”

After a Texas judge stepped in late Monday night to block the president’s newest executive action on immigration from taking effect, Boehner and other Republicans doubled down on that line, saying this was more evidence of why Senate Democrats should take up their bill.

But no one – Senate Democrats, first and foremost – seems to be convinced by that rhetoric, and, increasingly, it looks like it will be up to Republicans to make a move on DHS funding.

Last week, House conservatives on a monthly panel said an injunction could change their calculus on a DHS funding bill, but that doesn’t seem to have happened.

The House Freedom Caucus, a newly formed coalition of 30 to 40 conservatives, issued a news release Tuesday saying it was time for Senate Democrats to follow the will of the American people and “allow debate on the House-passed bill.”

Already, though, some in the GOP are hoping the Texas court injunction will make that truth a little more palatable for more conservative members.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.