WILL DHS SHUT DOWN?
by Sharon Rondeau
(Feb. 27, 2015) — With the midnight expiration of appropriated funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to Mark Knoller of CBS News, Speaker of the House John Boehner has proposed a three-week interim measure which would keep the department and all of its subsidiaries open with pay without changing the bill passed by the House last month which did not fund Obama’s executive actions on illegal aliens.
On January 14, the House approved HR 240 with five amendments which specifically prohibited the implementation of executive actions announced by Obama on November 20 which Obama himself had claimed he was constitutionally unable to implement on at least 22 occasions previously.
The U.S. Senate, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, had voted on four occasions to debate the House bill, but all Democrats plus Republican Sen. Dean Heller voted against it. On Monday, McConnell offered to remove the objectionable amendments and create a separate vote on the immigration issue while voting on the “clean bill” Democrats had demanded.
A procedural vote to debate McConnell’s proposal passed on Wednesday 98-2.
However, Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid reportedly has insisted that the House “pass the Senate bill.”
If appropriations are not agreed upon in time, DHS employees, which include ICE, the U.S. Border Patrol, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), may work without pay until the impasse is resolved.
At 11:54 a.m. EST, Roll Call reported that the Senate passed the “clean funding bill.”
The question of the executive actions has been appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, LA, after U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas Judge Andrew Hanen ruled in favor of 26 plaintiff states’ request to issue a temporary injunction against their implementation.
Update, 12:19 p.m. EST: Both the House and Senate have agreed to extend DHS funding for three weeks.
Correction, February 28, 2015: In an obviously biased article on Saturday morning, the Associated Press reported that a three-week DHS funding bill was not, in fact, approved by the House of Representatives. Rather, 52 House Republicans voted against it, resulting in the approval by both chambers of Congress in a spending bill which appropriates DHS funding for one week, ending on March 6.
It is all just more nonsense. The pundits keep saying DHS will be “shut down”, when only 15% of employees (excuse me, I meant “workers”) would be involved – and when reinstated would get back pay. Congress still refuses to address the root cause of the whole problem – an illegal alien in the White House. The whole house is burning down, so let’s spray some water on the driveway.