McConnell offers face-saving way out of DHS funding impasse

WASHINGTON — Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has offered a new approach to the impasse that threatens to partially shut down the Department of Homeland Security, separating a bill that would fund DHS from immigration amendments that would repeal President Barack Obama’s executive actions granting deportation relief to millions.

The GOP-controlled House passed a bill in January that links continued funding for DHS to a repeal of the immigration measures, but Senate Democrats blocked that legislation for the fourth time Monday. The impasse is sending the department hurtling toward a shutdown if lawmakers don’t come to an agreement by Saturday.

McConnell’s move would give Republicans an opportunity to symbolically express their displeasure with a vote on the immigration actions in a standalone bill, but would move Congress out of its homeland security quagmire by making DHS funding part of separate legislation.

Obama is expected to veto a bill defunding his immigration actions.

If funding did lapse, many DHS employees — from Border Patrol guards to Secret Service agents to Transportation Security Administration officers — would be forced to work without paychecks. About 80 percent of the agency's 240,000 employees are deemed essential to national security and would therefore have to stay on the job, while about 30,000 would be furloughed.  

“The new bill I described offers another option we can turn to," McConnell said. "It’s another way to get the Senate unstuck from a Democrat filibuster and move the debate forward."

McConnell said the separate immigration bill will also force a handful of moderate Senate Democrats, who have expressed reservations about the immigration actions, to take a firm position. Those Democrats — including Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Mark Warner of Virginia — have so far refused to vote for the DHS bill with the immigration amendments attached, arguing that DHS funding should not be taken hostage over an unrelated issue.

"Some Democrats give the impression they want Congress to address the overreach," McConnell said. "But when they vote, they always seem to have an excuse for supporting actions they once criticized. So I'm going to begin proceedings on targeted legislation that would only address the most recent overreach from November. It isn't tied to DHS' funding. It removes their excuse."

House Majority Leader John Boehner welcomed the new standalone bill.   

“This vote will highlight the irresponsible hypocrisy of any Senate Democrat who claims to oppose President Obama's executive overreach on immigration but refuses to vote to stop it," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement. "If we are going to work together on the American people's priorities, Washington Democrats must be honest with the people they represent.”

Although McConnell's new strategy is the clearest sign in weeks that Congress will move to avert a shutdown, it is unclear how conservative lawmakers in the House and Senate — who have insisted that DHS funding be used as leverage to overturn Obama’s immigration actions — will respond. Moreover, procedural hurdles loom. Senate Democrats appear hesitant to let a bill addressing the immigration actions move forward until they have a guarantee that Republicans would allow a separate bill fully funding DHS to proceed.

“It’s becoming clear Sen. McConnell realizes he must separate himself from the far right, but the bottom line is, this proposal doesn’t bring us any closer to actually funding DHS, and Republicans still have no real plan to achieve that goal,” Sen. Charles Schumer, Democrat from New York, said Monday night.