Senate rejects debate on homeland funds in push for ‘clean’ bill

The Senate on Monday rejected further negotiations over homeland security spending and sent a “clean” spending bill back to the House minus any restrictions on President Obama’s deportation amnesty, daring House Republicans to either accept it as is or face blame for shutting down key security agencies.

The House GOP is slated to meet Tuesday morning to chart a path forward, and leaders weren’t tipping their hands about what they’ll do.

“We are disappointed that Senate Democrats have once again rejected regular order. Now we will talk with House Republican members about the way forward,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner.

For months conservatives in the House have been trying to take a stand against Mr. Obama’s deportation amnesty, announced in November, that promises legal status, work permits and Social Security numbers to as many as 4 million illegal immigrants.

But Mr. Obama has vowed a veto, and Senate Democrats have filibustered to block the bill, helping drive a rift between the House GOP, which has held firm, and Senate Republicans, who have insisted they will not let the Department of Homeland Security run out of money.

The department has been operating on stopgap funding since Oct. 1, and just last week Congress approved a final one-week boost to last through this Friday.

Democrats say the stopgaps must end, and say they’ve made clear they won’t let Mr. Obama’s immigration policies be overturned by Congress, so the GOP either has to give up or take the blame for shutting down the department.

“This has already gone too far,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. “[The Islamic State] isn’t funded a week at a time. Al-Shabaab isn’t funded a week at a time. The Department of Homeland Security shouldn’t be either.”

House Republicans say they’ve passed legislation that does fund the department through the end of the fiscal year, while also attaching provisions stopping the amnesty. They argue it’s Senate Democrats’ filibuster that endangers funding.

But their position has been weakened by Senate Republicans, many of whom joined with Democrats last week and again Monday.

In the latest move, senators voted 58-31, with 16 Republicans joining Democrats, to reject the House GOP’s request to go to a conference to work out differences.

House conservatives are rallying for one last stand, though they fear their leaders are preparing a retreat.

Now that the Senate has sent back a “clean” spending bill, devoid of the prohibition on Mr. Obama’s amnesty, the rules let Democrats make a motion demanding that the bill be approved. Both Republicans and Democrats predict that if the plain bill were to come for a vote, it would pass — albeit with little GOP support.

Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, said he’ll try to prevent that option, but it’s up to GOP leaders to help him change or suspend the rules to head Democrats off.

“Republicans were elected on a promise to stop Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty. A single clause in a rule we have the power to change is not an excuse to fund lawlessness,” he said. “This is only a trap if we fail to act. Leadership’s back is not against the wall unless they choose it to be.”

Mr. Schumer argues the GOP is missing out on an easy excuse to retreat after a federal judge two weeks ago issued an injunction halting the president’s expanded amnesty, saying it likely violated federal laws governing major new policy initiatives.

Mr. Schumer said the GOP can claim the courts will make a final decision, and since the program is currently halted, they can let the spending bill move forward.

But Mr. King and fellow conservatives argue Congress has an independent duty to stop the president when it thinks he is acting unconstitutionally.

The conservatives also say that the court only stopped Mr. Obama’s November amnesty but left in place his original 2012 amnesty that has granted tentative legal status to more than 600,000 so-called Dreamers, or illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. The House spending bill halts that program as well as the new amnesty for an additional 4 million Dreamers and parents.