http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/republicans-homeland-security-shutdown-funding-bill-20150227Democrats Will Try to Rescue GOP Leaders, Avert Shutdown
Republicans could not muster support for the three-week bill and are now coalescing around a one-week measure instead.
By Daniel Newhauser, Alex Brown and Sarah Mimms
February 27, 2015 House Republican leaders failed to squeeze out a short-term victory Friday, as the chamber rejected a three-week funding measure that would prevent the Homeland Security Department from shutting down at midnight. With just hours before the deadline, the chamber appeared headed toward another vote on a one-week funding measure instead -- with Democrats stepping in to bail out the GOP.
The dramatic 203-224 vote, held open for several minutes to no avail, came after a day's worth of intense lobbying by the leadership of skeptical members across the conference, particularly conservatives angered that the bill didn't include provisions defunding President Obama's immigration executive orders.
In the end, 52 Republicans joined all but a dozen Democrats in voting against the measure, which was supposed to go to the Senate so it could be approved later Friday. White House spokesman Josh Earnest indicated Obama would sign it, even though he would still prefer a full-year clean bill of the type the Senate passed Friday morning.
Rep. Mike Simpson, an ally of Speaker John Boehner, suggested that the House could pass some version of the long-term Senate funding bill with the votes of "Democrats and a few of the adults" on the GOP side. That may well happen after a one-week funding measure, which appears to be the leadership's updated plan, is approved Friday night. Top Democrats were prepared to support it in hopes they could get a vote on a longer-term bill next week.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to colleagues Friday night urging them to support the seven-day bill. "Your vote tonight will assure that we will vote for full funding next week," she wrote. Because the measure will come up under suspension of the rules, it will need two-thirds support to pass. So roughly 100 Republicans will have to join Democrats in support.
But Republicans quickly pushed back on the notion that they had struck an agreement with Democrats. "No such deal or promise was made," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.
Just before 8:30 p.m. on Friday night, the Senate passed a one-week continuing resolution under unanimous consent. Essentially, if the House passes a one-week CR, the Senate will have deemed it passed in the upper chamber as well. House leadership hasn't yet made any public announcements about a vote on a one-week CR, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seems to have made that gamble that they will pass one. With that, the Senate recessed for the week.
At an earlier meeting of the House Freedom Caucus, a new coalition representing the chamber's most conservative members, Rep. Raul Labrador said the group had made a legislative proposal to leadership. They suggested leaders put on the House floor the same three-week CR, but with a provision mandating that it expires in a week if the Senate refuses a conference committee.
"We made 'em an offer, and they're discussing it right now," Labrador said.
Israel said every one of his fellow Democrats would help GOP leaders pass the Senate's funding bill. "We have consistently bailed them out," Israel said.
Even a win for House GOP leaders would have been fleeting, as they and their Senate counterparts still have to find a lengthier DHS funding solution that can clear both chambers by March 19, the new-and-improved shutdown deadline. House conservatives are insistent on blocking Obama's immigration policies, but Senate Democrats say they won't give the necessary 60 votes to anything but a clean funding bill.
Republican leaders' search for votes for the DHS bill became serious enough that they decided to scratch from Friday's schedule the other bill set to be considered—a rewrite of the No Child Left Behind education measure. That bill also was proving to be a tough sell within the GOP conference: Conservatives objected to reauthorizing a large federal program, while state interests were putting significant pressure on members, particularly those from Florida, New Jersey, and New York.
Though members were cautiously optimistic about the DHS measure coming out of a conference meeting Thursday night, the long delay portended trouble for the stopgap bill. Leaders knew they'd lose a sizable contingent of conservatives, who believe that Obama's executive action on immigration has plunged the nation into a constitutional crisis and who refuse to vote for any measure funding the agency tasked with implementing the action.
"I don't know how I go home and tell people that the outcome would have been different if Harry Reid had still been in charge" of the Senate, complained Rep. Mick Mulvaney.
And Rep. Steve Pearce said he was angry at the way the entire week was handled, as the House had to act at the very last minute.
"This is a protest vote on the way the whole thing is working," Pearce said. "This is not a way to govern."
But lawmakers aligned with leadership were frustrated by the conservatives' move.
"They're caving into Obama's recklessness by not showing they know how to tactically get three more weeks to continue the fight. … You can't say you want to fight and not understand tactically how to fight," said Rep. Devin Nunes, another close Boehner ally.
A larger circle of disillusioned members—including some centrists—emerged as well, and leadership sources found the target number of votes to pass the bill elusive. Democrats did not make the task any easier for their GOP counterparts.
If House Republicans couldn't pass a short-term funding bill for the Homeland Security Department, Democrats thought they'd have the leverage to force Boehner to fund the agency for the full year. The problem: Their plan relied on the logic of the House Republicans whose judgment they've questioned all week.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told her members to vote against Republicans' three-week bill to fund DHS, a rare step to oppose a "clean" shutdown-aversion measure. That's because the Senate has passed a full-year funding bill—one Democrats much prefer—and Pelosi thought Boehner would be forced to take up the Senate bill if his short-term CR goes down. "If this were to fail, they would have no choice but to take up the Senate bill," she said in her Friday press conference.
Passage of the long-term bill would come with largely Democratic votes, and the ire of much of Boehner's caucus. But Democrats were convinced that the speaker can't afford to let the agency shut down, and they put that theory to the test. "If the [CR] goes down here, I think there will be great pressure and justification for Speaker Boehner saying to his people, 'We tried and it went down, and we're now going to pass [the Senate] bill,' " House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said in an interview.
Before the Democratic whip operation sprung into action, members sounded torn on whether to support the bill. "I don't want to see it shut down, but I think that running the Department of Homeland Security for two months, three weeks at a time is absolutely irresponsible," said Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond. "Teachers do lesson plans longer than that."
The issue could be especially thorny for swing-district members. Democrats have said for months that any DHS shutdown would leave the country vulnerable to a terrorist attack, and voting against a measure—even a short-term one—that would avert such a shutdown will surely invite GOP attacks if DHS funding runs out at midnight.
Democratic leaders wouldn't say how hard they were pressing members to oppose the CR, especially since they believed Republicans would be able to pass it on their own.
"I think the Republicans probably have the votes for this, and so if any Democrats join them, that's not the point," Pelosi said. Still, she added, "I don't want Democrats to give them the victory."
Across the Capitol, Sen. Chuck Schumer had some simple advice for the GOP.
"The vote this afternoon means only one thing: Speaker Boehner, follow Leader McConnell and put the Senate bill on the floor now. It will pass and DHS will not shut down," Schumer said.
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, were largely unwilling Thursday to criticize the House's strategy, but establishment members and conservatives alike acknowledged that it is unlikely to get them anywhere. Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire called the three-week CR "delaying the inevitable."
Sen. Ted Cruz said he is hopeful that the standoff will work out in conservatives' favor, but warned that the party's strategy since December has been one that was always "doomed to failure."
"In funding virtually the entirety of the federal government [in December], leadership deliberately gave away virtually all of our leverage, putting us into a box canyon where the predictable result was what just happened: leadership caving, joining with Harry Reid and Obama and giving in entirely. That was a mistake. We shouldn't have given up the leverage in the first place," Cruz said, adding that he "eagerly await
leadership's next steps".
Senate Republicans praised the idea of a conference, bringing members of both parties from the House and Senate into a room to discuss the issue, "rather than having this ping-pong back-and-forth," as Senate Majority Conference chairman John Thune put it.
But Senate Democrats have said they will not give the majority the six votes they need to get into a conference. Now that the Senate has passed a clean bill, the Democratic thinking goes, the only purpose of a conference would be to fill it up with poison-pill amendments. Democrats could filibuster whatever the conference reports out, but not amend the deal -- meaning that if Republicans are successful in adding immigration provisions to the DHS bill in conference, Democrats couldn't get back to a clean bill. All they could do is shut down DHS.
The Senate will return to Washington at 5:30 on Monday to vote on cloture to proceed to a conference with the House. With 60 votes needed and Democrats balking, that measure is expected to fail.
Thune said he's hopeful that pressure will build on Democrats to accept a conference deal from the House. "They're clearly trying to make this as difficult as possible. It's hard to figure how they can depend on not going to conference with the House because that's the way the whole process is designed to work. ... The House will obviously call for a conference and we'll see what Senate Democrats decide to do."
But Democrats proved over the last several weeks that they won't budge on passing anything but a clean bill, ultimately forcing Senate Republican leadership to cave on the issue. And they don't seem to be showing any signs of movement now.
