The Senate plans to vote on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security that does not block President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congress has already funded the rest of the government in December, but the DHS funding was cut short to provide an opportunity for further debate on President Obama’s executive actions, including a program that defers deportation for immigrant children and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senate Democrats had balked at a recently introduced funding bill that included prohibitions against President Obama’s executive actions. President Obama said he would veto the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DHS would have to furlough 30,000 employees if Congress does not pass a funding bill by the end of Feb. 27 \u2013 while the remaining 85 percent of employees would have to work without pay, according to the agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But McConnell said the Senate will vote on a “clean” funding bill for DHS later this week and a separate bill prohibiting the executive actions \u2013 an approach that would fund the agency while allowing senators to reject President Obama’s executive actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“”The dual-pronged approach I’ve outlined \u2014 allowing the Senate to stop ‘unwise and unfair’ overreach on the one hand, and to fund DHS through the fiscal year on the other \u2014 is a sensible way forward,” McConnell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He called on Democrats to work with Republicans on the compromise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The onus continues to be on the Democrat Party to keep the Department of Homeland Security funded. Democrats can fund DHS now, not by holding more hypocritical press conferences but by ending their senseless filibuster and cooperating across the aisle,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., urged House Speaker John Boehner to bring the bill to the floor for a vote and for Republicans in the House support it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“”It is time to pass the Department of Homeland Security appropriation bill for the entire year of 2015. Let us hope our Republican friends and the Republican leaders have the common sense and the sense of duty to do so,” Hoyer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another twist comes from U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, who issued a temporary injunction against implementing the new programs on Feb. 16. The administration has said it would appeal the decision, but will suspend those implementation programs pending a new decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The partial shutdown would also throw into disarray grant programs, contracts at the Coast Guard and other agencies, and the management of cybersecurity efforts, according to DHS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colleen Kelley, the president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a letter Feb. 13 that Congress must solve the funding impasse and avoid a shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“No one wins if this political standoff continues. The American people do not win if the Department of Homeland Security is shut down, even if its employees continue to work,” Kelley said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Senate plans to vote on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security that does not block President Obama’s executive actions on immigration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":30950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":15,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2671],"class_list":["post-11111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"D3KMDA6RNJAEJE26S3VQGLEEDY","arc_canonical_url":"\/management\/2015\/02\/25\/senate-plans-vote-on-funding-bill-to-avert-dhs-shutdown\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n