WASHINGTON — Democrats stepped up their pressure on Speaker John Boehner on Monday to allow a vote on legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security through Sept. 30 without any immigration-related provisions attached, and one senior lawmaker predicted the top leader of House Republicans would eventually agree.
“I would hope and expect that we will have a vote” this week, said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking House Democrat.
Boehner has declined to say if he will permit a vote on the measure. A spokesman, Michael Steel, said Monday, “The House has voted to go to conference and resolve the differences between the House and Senate bills. That is the proper course of action under the Constitution, as Senate Democrats have said in the past.”
Other Democrats have said previously that the Ohio Republican promised as much during maneuvering Friday that led to the enactment of a stopgap one-week funding bill and averted a partial agency shutdown. Aides to the speaker deny any such commitment was made.
Hoyer made his comments as Republicans sought to persuade Democrats to agree to formal House-Senate negotiations on the measure, knowing that any such talks would almost certainly result in a bill that rolls back Obama’s immigration policy. Over the past two years, the president has issued directives that shelter millions of immigrants from the threat of deportation.
For their part, Senate Democrats have vowed to block the negotiations from taking place, and a vote on the question was set for later in the day.
The non-stop maneuvering has caused uncertainty at an agency with major anti-terrorism responsibilities, exposed a deep rift among House Republicans and left Boehner in a weakened position as he tries to fend off Democrats on the issue.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the president had been “disappointed” to have to sign just a one-week extension, an outcome that he said reflected “failed leadership” by Republicans in the House. He said the White House was hopeful GOP leaders would now allow a House vote on a full-year bill with no revocation of Obama’s immigration actions.
Yet he put the responsibility for resolving the standoff squarely on Republicans, suggesting Obama wouldn’t be getting heavily involved this week.
“So much of this dispute has been a dispute between Republican leadership in the Senate and a Republican leader in the House,” Earnest said Monday.
Interviewed Sunday on Face the Nation, Boehner declined to say what his next step would be if the Senate rejected the House’s request for negotiations.
A spokesman for Reid said Sunday there will be no negotiations with the House over Homeland Security funding and immigration.
“Sen. Reid has been clear for days on the fact that there will be no conference,” said Adam Jentleson, Reid’s spokesman. He said House Republicans want a conference so they can load up a funding bill that would pass with “poison pill riders.”
A so-called clean bill, in this instance, is one that focuses solely on the funding and does not include the immigration provisions.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., interviewed on CNN, said she doesn’t envision Senate Democrats budging.
