With deadline near, deal sets up Homeland Security vote in Senate

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Three days before a partial Homeland Security shutdown, lawmakers cleared the way Wednesday for Senate passage of legislation to fund the agency without immigration-related provisions opposed by President Barack Obama.

Approval in the Senate would send the issue to the House, where some conservatives derided the plan as a surrender to the White House. Other Republicans predicted it would clear, but Speaker John Boehner declined to say if he would put it to a vote.

“I’m waiting for the Senate to act. The House has done their job,” he said at a news conference where he repeatedly sidestepped questions about his plans.

Increasingly, though, it appeared the only alternative to House acceptance of the Senate measure — or perhaps a short-term funding bill — was the partial shutdown of a federal department with major anti-terrorism responsibilities — and the likelihood the GOP would shoulder whatever political blame resulted.

The developments in Congress unfolded as Obama met at the White House with immigration activists before departing for a speech in Florida, where more than 23 percent of the population is of Hispanic descent. One person attending the meeting, Frank Sharry, quoted Obama as saying Republicans were engaging in “kabuki” to appease conservatives who adamantly oppose presidential directives that would allow more than 4 million immigrants to remain in the country without threat of deportation even though they came to the country illegally.

Later, in Florida, Obama predicted his administration would win a victory at the appeals court in its bid to overturn a ruling that has blocked his immigration policies from taking effect. “If we don’t, we’ll take it up from there,” he said, apparently referring to an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The president already had arrived in Florida aboard Air Force One when the Senate took the first of several votes that could be required to pass the stand-alone spending bill. The tally was 98-2, reflecting a bipartisan sentiment that it was time to bring the current episode to a close.

The Homeland Security funding legislation has been at the core of a politically charged struggle for weeks in the Senate. Democrats have repeatedly blocked action on the measure, objecting that it included House-passed immigration provisions that the White House opposed.

With the threatened partial shutdown approaching, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., retreated Tuesday, offering separate votes on two bills. One would provide DHS funding, while the other would repeal Obama’s immigration directives issued last year.

Democrats initially said they wouldn’t agree unless Boehner signed on to the deal, but after a closed-door meeting, the party’s leader gave his consent.

“It’s an important step to be able to send to the House of Representatives a bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security,” said Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada.

Moments later, he and McConnell jointly pledged to pass a funding measure swiftly without the immigration provisions attached. McConnell said he hoped it could be cleared and “sent back to the House this week.”

The precise timing of the bill’s passage appeared to depend in large measure on the response of some of the Republican Party’s most-dedicated opponents of easing immigration laws.

Among them, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a potential presidential contender in 2016, told reporters he saw nothing to be gained from delaying the bill’s inevitable passage by a day or so. Another, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, declined to comment.

Across the Capitol, House Republicans met privately to discuss the Senate measure as Boehner marked time, and lawmakers were told to be prepared to spend the weekend in the Capitol to resolve the issue.