Pressure centers on House GOP on Homeland Security bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans reacted tepidly at best today to calls from the upper reaches of both political parties for legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security without immigration-related add-ons opposed by the White House.

Three days before a threatened partial shutdown at the agency, House Speaker John Boehner declined repeatedly to say what he would recommend to his conservative, fractious rank-and-file if the funding bill clears the Republican-controlled Senate.

"I'm waiting for the Senate to act. The House has done their job," he said after a closed-door meeting of the rank-and-file. Even so, lawmakers were told to be prepared to spend the weekend in the Capitol to resolve the issue.

One day after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., proposed decoupling the issues of DHS funding from immigration, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., said there was scant support expressed inside a House GOP meeting for what he termed a "surrender plan."

DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said that without legislation to set new spending levels, there would be no money for new initiatives such as "border security on the southern border." He also said disaster relief payments "would grind to a halt."