Democrats claimed victory. So did the Republican leadership, which took credit for Tuesday’s 257-167 vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security until Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
The only sour notes in the House of Representatives are being sounded by the GOP’s conservative base, which strongly opposed the removal of a legislative block on President Obama’s executive actions extending benefits to illegal immigrants.
Since January, when House Republicans passed a version of Homeland Security appropriation that included language attempting to stop Obama’s action (which has also been temporarily enjoined by a federal court) by defunding it, Republican leaders have been vying to put to rest internal disagreements and pass a straightforward spending appropriation. House leaders considered the effort to include provisions blocking the President from implementing executive actions on immigration to be a futile quest.
The Department of Homeland Security has been operating on back-to-back short-term spending bills, called continuing resolutions, as Congress squabbled over a longer funding deal. In the end, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio needed the participation of House Democrats to get a so-called clean version of the bill through the lower chamber.
“Today, the House fulfilled its constitutional duty by passing an appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said. “The functions of this Department are far too important to be subject to the risk of a government shutdown or the uncertainty of further continuing resolutions.”
But conservatives say the entire process has emboldened them in their effort to gain greater leverage with House Republican leaders on future legislation.
The passage Tuesday of Department funding bill included 167 “no” votes from Republicans because the measure was “clean” and did nothing to block Obama’s executive actions.
Conservatives say the GOP opposition will help build its influence within the conference as the House takes on the next round of spending legislation, such as a measure to raise the nation’s debt limit, among other bills.
Last week, more than 50 conservatives voted against short-term measures that would have kept Homeland funded for up to three more weeks without curbing Obama’s immigration directives. Conservatives Tuesday argued that despite the failure of the attempt to block Obama’s actions using the House’s power to originate spending, the conservative base is growing more powerful.
“There is a pushback that is growing,” Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, a conservative, said after the bill passed. “That’s the story. There is a growing snowball of conservatives in this conference that have decided that the strategy that they have been fed isn’t the strategy they want to support.”
The passage of the Homeland Security spending with Democratic votes provided cover for Republicans normally obligated to vote with the GOP leaders, including committee chairs, Many were able to vote against the measure thanks to overwhelming support from Democrats.
“Voted NO on the DHS funding bill,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, tweeted. “I will not empower amnesty.”
For Democrats, the outcome was nothing short of a complete victory for the President’s party, which has been out of power in the House since 2011 and in the Senate since January.
Democrats said they secured passage of a “clean” Homeland funding bill by staying unified against Republican majority versions of the legislation that defunded the president’s sweeping changes, as well as a measure that would have kept Homeland Security funded for only another three weeks.
Democratic opposition meant the GOP needed most of its own conference to back the three-week bill that was put on the floor on Feb. 27.
With more than 50 conservative Republicans voting against it, the bill failed, giving Democrats the upper hand as a midnight deadline approached.
Democrats backed a one-week funding deal last Friday, but only after assurances from Republican leaders that a “clean” Sept. 30 funding bill would be on the floor in a matter of days.
“We demonstrated through our unity that we can get results while Republicans eat each other alive,” Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., said.
Rep. John Fleming, R-La., said constituents lost out in Tuesday’s passage of a Homeland funding bill. Many in the conservative voting base wanted Republican leaders to go toe-to-toe with President Obama in an effort to stop his executive actions, which most in the GOP believe are unconstitutional.
“I think our supporters, our constituents, are disappointed that we talk tough rhetoric that we are going to fight tooth and nail, and then we ultimately roll over at the end of the day,” Fleming said. “I think they would like us to be a little more straightforward. To say, right from the beginning, we are not going to fight, or if we are going to fight, fight with everything we have.”
