The House of Representatives will this week vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in full while blocking the executive action taken by President Obama to enact immigration reform in the United States, according to House speaker John Boehner.
The House is expected to pass the $39.7bn spending bill today, when Republicans in the House leave Washington to spend two days in Hershey in Pennsylvania; however, the chances of the bill passing the Senate are uncertain and it could end up being vetoed by the White House. Lawmakers in the Republican Party say amendments will be passed to include a denial of the money needed to implement the president’s executive orders on immigration reform to free millions of undocumented immigrants from the threat of deportation.
Boehner insists that the party wants to ensure the continuation of funding to the Department of Homeland Security while putting a stop to Obama’s overreaching of his executive authority; however, he would not be drawn on whether a version of the DHS funding bill sans the immigration provisions would reach the floor of the House in the event that it fails to pass the Senate or the White House issues a veto.
Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, says that the Republican Party is jeopardizing the funding of the DHS at a time when international tensions are at a high following the terrorist attacks in Paris last week. “You’d think it would have heightened the urgency to pass a homeland security bill, but the Republicans still say no to passing a clean bill unless they can be a menace to immigration,” she noted.