Senate Dems Agree to Vote on Clean DHS Funding Bill - East Idaho News
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Senate Dems Agree to Vote on Clean DHS Funding Bill

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022515 DHSFlag?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1424894957733DHS(WASHINGTON) — Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid announced Wednesday that Senate Democrats will agree to vote on a clean Department of Homeland Security funding bill — despite House Speaker John Boehner not giving assurances he will hold a vote on the measure in the House of Representatives.

“We’re going to do everything we can to make sure it passes by an overwhelming vote,” Reid, D-Nev., told reporters Wednesday. “I think virtually every Democrat will vote for that.”

Reid said that if the House of Representatives does not vote on the clean measure and instead sends a funding bill with immigration provisions attached, Senate Democrats will not agree to go to conference on the bill, which is one option being floated on the House side.

“This isn’t the time for games. If the House of Representatives led by Speaker Boehner is interested in doing a funding measure for the Department of Homeland Security, it has to be one that has no tricks, no riders,” Reid said. “If you send something back, that is vexatious with all these riders and anti-immigrant stuff, he won’t be able to go to conference and he has to understand that.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could begin the process to set up votes on a clean measure in the Senate as soon as Wednesday afternoon. But the timing of any vote will depend on whether all senators give their consent to give back debate time.

Reid said Senate Democrats are ready to give their consent, but it is unknown at this time whether any Republican senators will force the Senate to use all debate time on the measure.

McConnell, R-Ky., has introduced a separate measure that would address the president’s executive actions on immigration without tying it to DHS funding, but Reid said Democrats would not agree to move onto the measure until the DHS funding bill has cleared the House.


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