House Republican leaders and conservatives were in rare agreement Sunday, declaring that there was no deal to vote on a “clean” Department of Homeland Security funding bill and vowing to keep fighting President Obama’s deportation amnesty.
“There is no such deal and there’s no such bill,” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said on “Fox News Sunday,” throwing cold water on inside-the-Beltway chatter that Republicans were agreeing to Democrats’ demands.
He insisted that House GOP leaders and rank-and-file members remained unified in opposition to Mr. Obama’s immigration actions, which are at the heart of the funding shutdown showdown.
“Obviously, our members have a lot of differences on how we maybe want to go about tactics. But our goal is the same,” said Mr. Scalise, Louisiana Republican.
Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the conservative’s newly formed Freedom Caucus, also shot down rumors of a deal for a clean bill.
“That’s not gonna happen,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Mr. Jordan, Ohio Republican, said his party must do a better job in rallying the American public against Mr. Obama’s executive actions, which seek to grant legal status, work permits and Social Seuciryt numbers to more than 4 million illegal immigrations.
“We haven’t made the case strong enough. We know it’s unconstitutional and we know it’s unfair,” he said.
House Republicans rebelled Friday against Speaker John A. Boehner’s plan to pass a three-week funding bill to avoid a shutdown of the department that night. Enough GOP lawmakers joined with Democrats to kill the bill in a startling rebuke to Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican.
The Senate later send a one-week funding measure that the House overwhelmingly approved just two hours before a shutdown.
With a new shutdown deadline at the end of the week, House Republicans continued to push Senate Democrats to enter negotiations over a funding bill that includes restrictions on Mr. Obama’s actions.
Senate Democrats have insisted that they will accept only a “clean” bill without anti-amnesty measures. They have accused Republicans of playing politics with national security in the funding standoff.
“We do want to fund that agency. We understand the terrorist threat out there,” said Mr. Jordan. “We’re willing to sit down and try to work out the differences. That’s all we’re asking for.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.