House Dems Call On Boehner To Take Up ‘Clean’ DHS Funding Bill

While Senate Democrats block consideration of a House-passed Department of Homeland Security funding bill that would halt President Obama’s executive amnesty, House Democrats are pressing House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to bring a new, “clean” bill to the House floor.

In a letter obtained by Politico, 119 House Democrats call on Boehner to pass a DHS funding bill free of current provisions blocking the executive actions.

“It is clear that the House-passed DHS funding bill will not be approved by the Senate or be signed into law by President Obama,” they write in the letter.

Politico reports that the letter, dated February 13, was circulated for about a week to compile signatures and was dispatched to Boehner Thursday morning.

While the House passed a DHS appropriations bill that defunds Obama’s executive amnesty last month, the legislation has been stalled in the Senate by Democrats who are refusing to bring the bill to the floor for debate or amendments.

According to House Democrats, however, it is House Republicans who are holding up the process, as the February 27 DHS funding deadline approaches.

“Instead of working constructively to address this critical challenge, House Republicans are holding hostage funding for the very Department that guards our borders and enforces our nation’s immigration laws,” they write.

The same day the Democrats’ letter is dated — February 13 — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) led 169 other House Republicans in another missive to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid demanding Senate Democrats allow the House-passed bill make it to the Senate floor.

“For the sake of our nation, our two bodies must stand together on a bipartisan basis. But in order to do this, the Senate Democrat caucus must cease to play politics with the Constitution,” the letter read. “You must end your filibuster of the House-passed bill and allow it to proceed to the floor for consideration.  History will record our actions and how we honor the trust placed in all of us by the American people.”

The House Judiciary Committee noted the signatures for that letter were collected in about 24 hours.