New York Times
By Ashley Parker
February 10, 2015
With
a little over two weeks until the Department of Homeland Security runs
out of money, Republican leaders in Congress publicly announced Tuesday
what had become a grim,
if private, truth in the Capitol — they are at an impasse, with no easy
way out.
“I
think it’s clearly stuck in the Senate,” said Senator Mitch McConnell
of Kentucky, the majority leader. “We can’t get on it, we can’t offer
amendments to it. And the
next step is obviously up to the House.”
Senate
Republicans have failed three times so far to pass a bill to finance
the department, which runs out of money on Feb. 27, in what has become a
larger proxy fight
over President Obama’s immigration policies.
The
House last month passed a bill to the pay for department operations,
but the legislation included provisions that would have gutted the
president’s executive actions
on immigration, rolling back legal protections for as many as five
million undocumented immigrants, including children.
Senate
Democrats, united against anything other than a “clean” spending bill,
filibustered to prevent Republicans from taking up the legislation — a
maneuver they decried
when they were in the minority — and Mr. Obama has promised to veto any
bill that undoes his executive actions.
The
high-stakes gamesmanship, however, is not just between Republicans and
Democrats, but also between Senate and House Republicans, with leaders
in each chamber suggesting
that the other deliver a solution. “The House has passed a bill to fund
the Department of Homeland Security, and block the President’s
unilateral executive action on immigration,” said Michael Steel, a
spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner. “Now, the
pressure is on Senate Democrats who claim to oppose the president’s
action, but are filibustering a bill to stop it.”
Mr.
Boehner offered a similar assessment last week, with some sly
encouragement for Mr. McConnell: “God bless him and good luck,” Mr.
Boehner said. “He’s got a tough job
over there. I’ve got a tough job over here.”
House
Republicans have not started working on an alternative, according to
House leadership aides, and are unlikely to do so until there is at
least some signal that it
would have a chance to make it through the Senate.
And
so, with just 17 days until the agency runs out of money, and despite
many closed-door meetings and private conversations, Senate Republicans
are, indeed, stuck. On
Tuesday, one after another offered a stream of somber analysis on how
to prevent a shutdown of the homeland security agency.
“We’re
trying,” said Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 ranking Senate
Republican. “We’ve done the best we can, but at some point the
arithmetic is the reality.”
“I
wish I had a good sense about that,” said Senator John Thune of South
Dakota, a member of Republican leadership. “I think it’s a work in
progress.”
And
from Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona: “We’ve brought it up,
what, three times now and the same result, so I just don’t know what
else we’re supposed to do
over here,” he said. “All we can do is say we tried, and the House will
have to pass something else.”
One
option being considered is another short-term funding measure, which
could push the confrontation back a few months, or even until the end of
the fiscal year. But
Senate Democrats on Tuesday pushed back on a temporary fix, with
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader, calling it a “very,
very bad” option.
“It
would eliminate almost a billion dollars of funding that would go
directly to the states,” Mr. Reid said. “It’s not good for protecting
our homeland.”
Republicans
had a different version of who should own the blame. “If there’s a
shutdown, it wouldn’t be because of us,” said Senator Orrin G. Hatch,
Republican of Utah.
“The Democrats are filibustering it. I don’t know how we get blamed for
that this time.”
Despite
the uncertainty, Republicans also said that they would not allow even a
partial government shutdown. “I have no doubt the Department of
Homeland Security will
be funded,” Mr. Cornyn said.
But
as for exactly how, the answer Tuesday still seemed to be “I don’t
know” — a variation of which was offered by more than half a dozen
Senate Republicans.
“I don’t know,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, shaking her head. “I truly don’t know.”
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