A $40 billion Homeland Security spending bill has been stalled in the Senate for weeks due to Democratic opposition to language in the bill that would defund Obama’s executive actions that provide millions of illegal immigrants access to work permits and federal benefits. While it passed the House easily in January, Senate Democrats blocked the bill for a fourth time on Monday.

Senate Republicans said Tuesday they have agreed to set aside those provisions in a separate bill.

They have crafted a new measure, authored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that would block Obama’s November executive action benefiting millions of illegal immigrants. The measure would be taken up separately from a clean Homeland Security funding bill, and it does not address Obama’s 2012 executive action shielding from deportation some of the millions of young people who arrived here illegally as children.

Conservatives are likely to oppose the decision, as many of them hoped to use the Congressional power of the purse to block Obama from using his authority in a manner they believe is unconstitutional.

Senate Republicans, however, have pledged all along not to let Homeland Security funding run out.

They cited a recent federal court ruling in Texas to justify their decision strip out the executive action language.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen issued an injunction to stop Obama’s November executive action while 26 states prepare to challenge it in court.

The Obama administration has appealed the decision, but for now at least, the directive has been halted.

“With this injunction in place, any money the U.S. Congress appropriates to the Department of Homeland Security will not go to funding the president’s executive action,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the Senate majority whip, said. “What we need to do this week is to make sure the Department of Homeland Security is funded. We will do that.

Republicans plan to take up the Collins measure on Friday and have not scheduled a date to vote on the clean funding measure.

The timing will likely be up to the House, which would have to send over a spending bill due to parliamentary rules.

Republican aides in both the House and Senate said appropriators have been working together on a Homeland Security funding measure but House Republicans have not signed off on it.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has made no commitment to producing a new spending bill, saying repeatedly that the House has already passed a spending measure and Democrats in the Senate are blocking it. House Republicans will huddle in private Wednesday morning to discuss what to do next.

“The speaker has been clear,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said Tuesday. “The House has acted, and now Senate Democrats need to stop hiding. Will they continue to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security or not?”

Senate lawmakers are now bickering over the timing of the two bills, with Democrats insisting on voting first on the Homeland Security funding bill in order to ensure the department does not run out of funds on Friday.

Democrats had been stepping up pressure on the GOP to take up a “clean” funding bill, staging news conferences and floor speeches that warn against letting Homeland Security funding lapse. The department is in charge of critical security programs including airport screening, border enforcement and working with local police and fire departments on their emergency response programs.

Republicans have also been mindful of polls that indicate the public would blame the GOP for a Homeland Security closure, even though essential employees would be required to report to work.