Cruz Says Fate of Homeland Security in GOP Leadership’s Hands

Wall Street Journal

By Damien Paletta

February 8, 2015

Cruz Says Fate of Homeland Security in GOP Leadership’s Hands

With the Department of Homeland Security’s funding set to expire Feb. 27, Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) complained that GOP leaders lacked a strategy for how to proceed and blamed a larger funding bill approved in December for putting his party in a “box canyon.”

Congress remains splintered over how to fund DHS, which runs the Secret Service, border patrol agencies, as well as airport and port security, among other things.

Meanwhile, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson told CNN on Sunday that failing to extend funding for the agency would mean 30,000 employees at his agency would be sent home indefinitely without pay. He suggested the White House was unwilling to negotiate a DHS funding bill if any changes to the immigration policy were part of the discussions.

“I am on Capitol Hill now virtually every working day talking to Democrats and Republicans about the importance of a fully funded Department of Homeland Security in these times in particular,” he said.

House Republicans have passed a bill that would continue funding DHS beyond February but simultaneously block an executive order authorized late last year by President Barack Obama that would make it easier for certain immigrants to work in the U.S. Senate Republicans have tried to take up the House bill, but Democrats repeatedly have blocked the measure last week.

Mr. Obama’s executive order on immigration was heralded by many, though not all, Democrats, but infuriated many Republicans who alleged he was violating the constitution by offering an amnesty to undocumented immigrants. Many Republicans have vowed to try to block the immigration move either through law or through the courts.

But they can only roll back the executive order in Congress if Senate Democrats agree, and so far Democrats appear unwilling to budge, blocking numerous moves by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) to begin debate on the House-passed bill.

It’s not clear how Senate GOP leaders will proceed this week in the face of Democratic opposition to the House bill.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, center, at the U.S. Capitol on February 3. On Sunday, he warned 30,000 departmental employees could be sent home indefinitely if full funding for the sprawing agency isn’t reinstated.

“This fight has been won in the House,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio). “Now, it is up to Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats – especially Democrats who criticized President Obama’s executive overreach, but are now filibustering Homeland Security funding to protect it.”

Mr. Cruz, a central supporter of blocking the White House’s new immigration rules, deflected blame in two interviews Sunday from some nervous Republicans who have said it will now be difficult for GOP lawmakers to backpedal on their efforts to stop the executive order. He criticized the decision to break Homeland Security funding off from other appropriations bills to give Republicans an opportunity to fight Mr. Obama’s order. He said they had more leverage then, fresh off their midterm election victories.

“This is a strategy that came from Republican leadership… I said in December this gives up our leverage and it puts into, effectively, a box canyon,” Mr. Cruz said on CNN. “So I would say it’s now up to leadership to give us their strategy. I told them this was not a winning strategy but they went down this path anyway.”

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