Senate Democrats Block DHS Funding Bill From Moving Forward

iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats blocked a House-passed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security from moving forward on Tuesday.  

The legislation is controversial because it includes provisions blocking President Obama’s recent executive actions on immigration.

The Senate voted 51-48 on a procedural vote, falling short of the 60 votes need to move forward with the legislation.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, changed his vote from a “no” to a “yes” for a procedural reason that allows him to bring up the measure for a vote later on.

Senate Democrats are urging Republican colleagues to pass a clean bill without any immigration provisions attached before funding runs out on Feb. 27.

“We do face terrorist threats. We do face cyber criminals. Secret Service is reforming itself. We have fence jumpers at the White House and we have drones over the White House and yet we’re going to dicker dicker dicker dicker over 5 poison pill amendments. Let’s clean this out,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-MD, said on Tuesday. “Let’s come back with a clean bill.”

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to stress the importance of passing of a clean bill.  

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Johnson compared a short-term funding bill to driving a car with only five dollars of gas in the tank.

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