After Senate Democrats blocked a House-passed Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill for a fourth time Monday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is offering a potential alternate route.
McConnell announced that the Senate will consider a bill to take on President Obama’s most recent executive amnesty, distinct from the DHS funding portion of the House-passed bill — which takes on a larger swath of Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
“Some Democrats give the impression they want Congress to address the overreach. But when they vote, they always seem to have an excuse for supporting actions they once criticized. So I’m going to begin proceedings on targeted legislation that would only address the most recent overreach from November. It isn’t tied to DHS’ funding. It removes their excuse,” McConnell said Monday evening on the Senate floor.
McConnell offered up the new bill on as a way for the Senate to get “unsuck.”
“As long as Democrats continue to prevent us from even [debating the House-passed bill], the new bill I described offers another option we can turn to. It’s another way to get the Senate unstuck from a Democrat filibuster and move the debate forward,” the Kentucky Republican said.
After McConnell’s announcement, House Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel signaled support for the move.
”This vote will highlight the irresponsible hypocrisy of any Senate Democrat who claims to oppose President Obama’s executive overreach on immigration, but refuses to vote to stop it,” Steel said in a statement. “If we are going to work together on the American peoples priorities, Washington Democrats must be honest with the people they represent.”
DHS funding is set to expire on February 27 and Congress is scrambling to pass an appropriations bill.
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