Senate passes one-week extension of DHS funding

WASHINGTON -- The Senate passed a bill extending funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by one week on Friday evening, sending it over to the House of Representatives mere hours before a midnight deadline.

A few hours earlier, the House rejected a three-week extension of DHS funding, throwing negotiations into disarray just hours before large portions of the department would be forced to shut down.

That bill was defeated 203 to 224, with 52 Republicans defecting from the plan despite their leaders' support for it, and only a dozen Democrats voting in favor of it.

After the House vote, President Obama met in the Oval Office on Friday evening with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and other senior members of his administration to discuss the impending funding deadline and the administration's response to a potential DHS shutdown. He also spoke with Democratic congressional leaders by phone to receive an update on negotiations on Capitol Hill.

Earlier Friday, the Senate passed a bill funding DHS through September by a vote of 68 to 31. That bill did not include language conservative Republicans had demanded, prohibiting President Obama from moving forward with his plan to shelter millions of undocumented immigrants from the threat of deportation.

The House has thus far been unable to pass any bill that extends funding for DHS past the midnight deadline but doesn't restrict the president's actions on immigration. House GOP leaders were rallying their caucus to support the three-week plan to give them additional leverage in negotiations with the Senate, arguing to conservatives that the president's actions would not be implemented over the next three weeks, and that the additional time could give them more time to make hay of the issue.

Mr. Obama was to begin implementing his immigration proposal this week, but his action was halted by a federal judge in Texas who ruled that 26 states suing the federal government over the issue have standing to pursue their lawsuit. The administration has appealed the ruling.

Congressional leaders face a dwindling menu of options to avoid a shutdown of large parts of DHS. The House voted earlier Friday to go to conference with the Senate bill, perhaps hoping to insert some language targeting the president's executive action on immigration. But Senate Democrats, wary of any change to the "clean" funding extension they helped pass, have been resistant to going to conference.

Senate Democrats demonstrated some openness to a three-week extension when that seemed like a viable escape hatch on Thursday. But with that plan now dead in the House, the focus shifted to a one-week plan.

After the three-week extension failed in the House, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, continued pushing House GOP leaders to allow a vote on the Senate bill extending DHS funding through September.

"How many more times will Republicans send us hurtling towards a completely avoidable cliff?" Reid asked in a statement. "Now is the time to drop the partisan political games and come together to avoid a Homeland Security shutdown for the good of our country. Earlier today, the Senate passed a broadly bipartisan bill to avoid a Homeland Security shutdown. There is a bipartisan majority for the same clean, yearlong Homeland Security funding bill in the House and Republican leaders should bring it to a vote immediately."

Late on Friday, the administration began circulating procedures delineating what happens if DHS shuts down at midnight. Though most DHS employees would not receive paychecks if the department shuts down, up to 85 percent would would be required to continue showing up to work anyway -- they're considered "essential" employees because their responsibilities affect national security.