Immigration Reform 2015: GOP-Controlled House Rejects Clean DHS Funding at Deadline; Homeland Security Releases Shutdown Plan
There was no budget intact before Friday's deadline for the nation's Homeland Security department as the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives rejected the Senate's last-minute "clean" bill to finance the department without the clauses that would strip away President Obama's controversial immigration executive actions.
On Friday, the House voted 203-224 to reject the bill submitted by the Senate that would have allowed for Homeland Security, for three weeks, to receive funding that would have prevented the department, which oversees the nation's immigration activity and border security, from undergoing a shutdown when its budget expired at midnight on Feb. 28.
Following the vote, the Senate passed a bill to finance the department for one week and sent it to the House for a vote, which was still pending at press time.
Democrats and Republicans find themselves at a standstill with the department's funding, with the main issue circling around President Obama's executive actions on immigration, which would create programs that would potentially shield millions of qualifying undocumented immigrants nationwide from deportation for up to three years. Homeland Security has been encharged with carrying out and enforcing the executive actions, which, while lauded by Democrats and immigration activists, have angered hard-line conservatives who claim that President Obama overstepped his constitutional bounds by issuing the executive actions on immigration reform.
A federal judge in Texas last week ruled against the Obama administration's executive actions and instructed DHS not to proceed with the program. The administration has filed an appeal to the ruling, which is still pending.
Without federal funding, Homeland Security, created in 2002 under former President George W. Bush, would have to issue furloughs, or leaves of absence, to thousands of employees for the department, and the department could potentially face a partial shutdown.
In anticipation of a shutdown, the department released a 46-page document detailing its contingency plans and what sections and functions would be available should its funding fail to pass before the deadline. Of the department's 225,017 employees, 194,649 of them would be required to work, but would not be paid. Under the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services bureau, 13,099 of the department's employees -- roughly 97.3 percent of its workforce -- would be retained, according to the department.
While hard-line Republicans in the House have refused to budge on financing Homeland Security with funding that would allow for the department to implement President Obama's executive action measures, Senate Democrats have also stood firm in filibustering and refusing to pass any GOP attempt to fund the department with amendments that would do away with the president's immigration executive actions.
Some GOP legislators have been warning that allowing Homeland Security to lose its funding would damage the credibility of the Republican Party, which regained control of Congress in the November midterm elections, with the public.
President Obama took to Twitter to express his disappointment in the GOP-ruled House for not passing a budget for Homeland Security.
"Six hours until a Homeland Security shutdown. #EnoughAlready—time to pass the bipartisan funding bill now," he tweeted Friday.