Senate Republicans could take up the House-passed Homeland Security funding bill as soon as this week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. The vote, on a bill that strongly challenges President Obama’s executive action on immigration, will test McConnell’s new leadership in the world’s greatest deliberative body.
The Kentuckian said his conference would turn its attention to the crucial appropriations bill as soon as the Senate has cleared legislation authorizing the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. McConnell’s deputy, Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, said the Homeland Security funding package would likely bypass the committee process and be brought straight to the floor given a four-week deadline to fund the department or risk a shutdown.
The dilemma facing Republicans is what to do if they can’t garner 60 votes to clear the bill, a likely proposition given the strong immigration enforcement measures added to the legislation in an effort to roll back President Obama’s executive order to legalize 4.1 million illegal immigrants and grant them work permits. Most Senate Democrats support the president’s move, while a handful of their Republican colleagues find the House bill objectionable.
Senate Republicans leaders concede that the votes aren’t there and have yet to develop an alternative approach. But they are vowing to fight for the House bill on the Senate floor nonetheless.
“This is an important fight to have,” said Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the GOP Conference vice chairman. “I think we should do everything we can to persuade at least a half-dozen Democrats that they should join us to get this done. Sometimes you don’t know how these legislative battles go if you don’t have them.”
