Republicans to push short-term funding

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Sounding retreat, House Republicans agreed Thursday to push short-term funding to prevent a partial shutdown at the Homeland Security Department while leaving in place Obama administration immigration policies they have vowed to repeal.

“The speaker’s pretty adamant that he’s not going to shut down Homeland Security, especially in light of the Mall of America and in light of what’s happened in New York,” said Rep. Dennis Ross., R-Fla., emerging from a closed-door strategy session with the Republican rank-and-file.

He referred to a suggestion made by one terrorist group that a sympathizer should attack the Mall of America, an enormous shopping facility in Minnesota, as well as the arrests Wednesday in Brooklyn of men charged with plotting to help Islamic State fighters.

Ross and other Republicans said legislation to fund DHS for three weeks would be put to a vote in the House today.

Senate Democratic officials indicated they would agree to the measure and predicted President Barack Obama would sign the measure, averting a partial shutdown of an agency with major anti-terrorism responsibilities.

Outlining a second step in a revised strategy, Ross said House Republicans also would seek negotiations on a separate spending bill on track for Senate passage today. It would fund the agency through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year while also rolling back Obama’s immigration directives.

Senate rules require 60 votes to initiate formal compromise talks between the houses on any bill, and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said in advance his party would use its strength to prevent that from happening in the current clash.

Anticipating that, some Republicans made the case inside the strategy session for simply conceding defeat and agreeing to a longer-term funding bill without conditions, according to officials who attended the session.