OXON HILL, Md. — Rick Santorum said Friday that congressional Republicans are “in a no-win situation” after the House failed to pass a short-term funding measure to keep the Department of Homeland Security running, with a shutdown of the department looming.
Santorum, a former senator and member of Congress, has been a vocal opponent of President Obama’s executive action on immigration, which congressional Republicans have attempted to block through the funding process for DHS.
But, in an interview with the Washington Examiner, Santorum said he was “disgusted” with the strategy congressional Republicans have taken, arguing that Republican leaders should have been more firm and explained their opposition to the president’s actions more clearly.
“I frankly have been disgusted by the whole thing, that we are now going to be reliant upon the Supreme Court, ultimately, to decide whether the president, who clearly abused his Constitutional authority, is going to be held accountable to it,” Santorum said from a suite at the Gaylord National Resort, where he spoke earlier to the Conservative Political Action Conference.
“The Congress has every right to exercise its prerogative as to determining what the authority of the president is. They haven’t been, and that weakens the fabric of our country.”
A federal judge recently ruled that the president overstepped his authority by issuing the executive actions, which would protect roughly 4 million undocumented immigrants from threat of deportation. That ruling is being appealed.
In the meantime, congressional Republicans have moved forward with their efforts to block the president’s actions on their own, but have been unable to pass the measure in the Senatewithout Democratic support. If Republicans do not pass funding for DHS by midnight, the department will experience a partial shutdown until funding is restored.
Friday afternoon, the House rejected a short-term funding measure without immigration language that would have kept the department running for three weeks.
Santorum placed the onus squarely on Republican leadership for a strategic failure.
“Given the gravity of this situation, that leadership should have stepped out and said, ‘This is different, here’s why it’s different, and here’s why we’re going to do some things that some people may say are extreme. But what the president did was different than anything he’s ever done, and we’re going to treat it that was because it is that way,'” Santorum said. “They failed to do that. They failed to lead. They didn’t articulate for the American public why this was a serious Constitutional issue that was going to affect freedom going forward in this country.”
Republicans have attempted to place blame for any impending DHS shutdown on Senate Democrats, who blocked a vote on a funding measure with the immigration rider attached.
But Santorum said Republicans might be blamed for a shutdown anyway.
“Historically they have,” Santorum said. “… My guess is that it will come to no good end.”
