WASHINGTON (AP) — Days from a Homeland Security Department shutdown, Senate Republicans sought a way out Monday by splitting President Barack Obama’s contested immigration measures from the agency’s funding bill.

It was not clear whether the gambit by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would succeed ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline to fund the department or see it shut down. It was far from certain whether it would win any Democratic support, and House conservatives remain firmly opposed to any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department that does not also overturn Obama’s executive actions on immigration.

But with Senate Democrats united against a House-passed bill that funds the agency while blocking the president on immigration, McConnell said it was time for another approach.

“It’s another way to get the Senate unstuck from a Democrat filibuster and move the debate forward,” McConnell said on the Senate floor after a vote to advance the House-passed bill failed 47-46, short of the 60 votes needed. Three previous attempts earlier in the month had yielded similar results.

“This is our colleagues’ chance to do exactly what they led their constituents to believe they’d do: defend the rule of law, without more excuses,” McConnell said in a jab at the handful of Senate Democrats who have voiced opposition to Obama’s executive actions offering work permits and deportation deferrals for millions in the country illegally.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, welcomed McConnell’s move, though without predicting its chances of success in the House.

“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,” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

McConnell left unclear whether a vote overturning Obama’s immigration moves would be followed by a stand-alone vote to fund the Homeland Security Department — an omission not lost on Senate Democrats.

“This proposal doesn’t bring us any closer to actually funding DHS, and Republicans still have no real plan to achieve that goal,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “It’s a disgrace that ISIS and al-Shabab are fully funded, but thanks to Republican game-playing, the Department of Homeland Security might not be.” ISIS in one acronym for the Islamic State militant group that has taken over much of Iraq and Syria. Over the weekend, a video purported to be released by Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked rebel group al-Shabab urged Muslims to attack shopping malls in Western countries.

McConnell’s move came after Obama warned the nation’s governors that states would feel the economic pain of a Homeland Security shutdown, with tens of thousands of workers in line to be furloughed if the agency shuts down at midnight Friday, and many more forced to work without pay.

“It will have a direct impact on your economy, and it will have a direct impact on America’s national security,” Obama told governors as they visited the White House as part of their annual conference.

Within hours of Republicans securing the Senate majority last November, McConnell vowed there would be no government shutdowns, but the immigration fight threatened to shut down the Homeland Security Department and undermine GOP promises that they would show the nation they could govern.

McConnell’s move seemed aimed at dividing Senate Democrats who have been united against the $39.7 billion House-passed legislation that funds the Homeland Security Department through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year, while also rolling back Obama’s executive actions granting work permits to millions of immigrants in this country illegally.

Aides said McConnell’s bill would target only the executive actions Obama announced in November, not an earlier directive from 2012 that provided protections to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally to the country as youths.

That could make it more difficult for the handful of moderate Democrats who opposed Obama’s executive actions when he announced them in November to vote against the legislation.

The move came as growing numbers of Senate Republicans called for Congress to jettison the immigration fight and pass a “clean” Homeland Security spending bill without immigration language. In wake of a federal court’s ruling last week stating that Obama had exceeded his authority and putting his immigration policies on hold, several Senate Republicans said the courts were the best place to fight that battle.

“Leave it to the courts. I think we have an excellent case before the Supreme Court,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Monday night.

The Obama administration on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, to put his ruling on hold and filed a notice of appeal of his ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

House conservatives, by contrast, said the court developments only strengthened their resolve to use the Homeland Security budget to fight Obama on immigration.

“A federal judge has confirmed that what we’ve done is the right thing,” conservative Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said Monday. “I hope that the U.S. Senate can see the light and do the right thing.”

A short-term extension of current funding levels remained possible, but lawmakers have only a few days to come up with even that partial solution before the agency’s funding expires.

A Homeland Security shutdown would result in some 30,000 administrative and other workers getting furloughed. Some 200,000 others would fall into essential categories and stay on the job at agencies like the Border Patrol, Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration, though mostly without drawing a paycheck until the situation is resolved.

___=

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor and Charles Babington contributed to this report.

• Politics & Government
• Government
• Barack Obama
• Homeland Security
• Homeland Security Department
• Mitch McConnell
• Senate
• Senate Democrats
• immigration

WASHINGTON (AP) — Days from a Homeland Security Department shutdown, Senate Republicans sought a way out Monday by splitting President Barack Obama’s contested immigration measures from the agency’s funding bill.

It was not clear whether the gambit by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would succeed ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline to fund the department or see it shut down. It was far from certain whether it would win any Democratic support, and House conservatives remain firmly opposed to any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department that does not also overturn Obama’s executive actions on immigration.

But with Senate Democrats united against a House-passed bill that funds the agency while blocking the president on immigration, McConnell said it was time for another approach.

“It’s another way to get the Senate unstuck from a Democrat filibuster and move the debate forward,” McConnell said on the Senate floor after a vote to advance the House-passed bill failed 47-46, short of the 60 votes needed. Three previous attempts earlier in the month had yielded similar results.

“This is our colleagues’ chance to do exactly what they led their constituents to believe they’d do: defend the rule of law, without more excuses,” McConnell said in a jab at the handful of Senate Democrats who have voiced opposition to Obama’s executive actions offering work permits and deportation deferrals for millions in the country illegally.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, welcomed McConnell’s move, though without predicting its chances of success in the House.

“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,” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

McConnell left unclear whether a vote overturning Obama’s immigration moves would be followed by a stand-alone vote to fund the Homeland Security Department — an omission not lost on Senate Democrats.

“This proposal doesn’t bring us any closer to actually funding DHS, and Republicans still have no real plan to achieve that goal,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “It’s a disgrace that ISIS and al-Shabab are fully funded, but thanks to Republican game-playing, the Department of Homeland Security might not be.” ISIS in one acronym for the Islamic State militant group that has taken over much of Iraq and Syria. Over the weekend, a video purported to be released by Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked rebel group al-Shabab urged Muslims to attack shopping malls in Western countries.

McConnell’s move came after Obama warned the nation’s governors that states would feel the economic pain of a Homeland Security shutdown, with tens of thousands of workers in line to be furloughed if the agency shuts down at midnight Friday, and many more forced to work without pay.

“It will have a direct impact on your economy, and it will have a direct impact on America’s national security,” Obama told governors as they visited the White House as part of their annual conference.

Within hours of Republicans securing the Senate majority last November, McConnell vowed there would be no government shutdowns, but the immigration fight threatened to shut down the Homeland Security Department and undermine GOP promises that they would show the nation they could govern.

McConnell’s move seemed aimed at dividing Senate Democrats who have been united against the $39.7 billion House-passed legislation that funds the Homeland Security Department through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year, while also rolling back Obama’s executive actions granting work permits to millions of immigrants in this country illegally.

Aides said McConnell’s bill would target only the executive actions Obama announced in November, not an earlier directive from 2012 that provided protections to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally to the country as youths.

That could make it more difficult for the handful of moderate Democrats who opposed Obama’s executive actions when he announced them in November to vote against the legislation.

The move came as growing numbers of Senate Republicans called for Congress to jettison the immigration fight and pass a “clean” Homeland Security spending bill without immigration language. In wake of a federal court’s ruling last week stating that Obama had exceeded his authority and putting his immigration policies on hold, several Senate Republicans said the courts were the best place to fight that battle.

“Leave it to the courts. I think we have an excellent case before the Supreme Court,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Monday night.

The Obama administration on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, to put his ruling on hold and filed a notice of appeal of his ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

House conservatives, by contrast, said the court developments only strengthened their resolve to use the Homeland Security budget to fight Obama on immigration.

“A federal judge has confirmed that what we’ve done is the right thing,” conservative Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said Monday. “I hope that the U.S. Senate can see the light and do the right thing.”

A short-term extension of current funding levels remained possible, but lawmakers have only a few days to come up with even that partial solution before the agency’s funding expires.

A Homeland Security shutdown would result in some 30,000 administrative and other workers getting furloughed. Some 200,000 others would fall into essential categories and stay on the job at agencies like the Border Patrol, Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration, though mostly without drawing a paycheck until the situation is resolved.

___=

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor and Charles Babington contributed to this report.

• Politics & Government
• Government
• Barack Obama
• Homeland Security Department
• Homeland Security
• Mitch McConnell
• Senate
• Senate Democrats
• immigration

(Bloomberg) — The U.S. Senate Republican leader changed strategy in the party’s attempt to block President Barack Obama’s immigration orders and avoid a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed legislation that separates the immigration issue from funding for the agency after the Senate failed Monday for a fourth time to advance a House-passed bill that linked the two matters. Funding for the department is set to expire Friday.

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McConnell of Kentucky said he was offering the bill as “a way to get the Senate unstuck.”

Republicans have insisted on using a $39.7 billion Homeland Security funding bill to reverse Obama’s decision in November to ease deportation for about 5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

McConnell didn’t outline a strategy for funding the agency, though the immigration vote would clear the way for a separate funding bill sought by Democrats. McConnell has said repeatedly that he wouldn’t let the agency’s funding expire.

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The move distinguishes McConnell’s leadership style from that of House Speaker John Boehner, who has allowed the demands of Tea Party-aligned lawmakers to bring the government to the brink of a shutdown before reaching a compromise. A 16-day partial shutdown in October 2013 was triggered by a dispute over funding Obamacare.

Strategy Tug-of-War

McConnell and Boehner of Ohio have been in a tug-of-war over strategy. Two weeks ago, McConnell declared the Homeland Security bill “clearly stuck in the Senate” and said the next step was up to the House. Boehner, though, insisted “the House did its job” and the Senate must make the next move.

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Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel said Monday that a separate vote on the November immigration orders “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.”

The new legislation will put pressure on Senate Democrats including Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri who have been critical of Obama’s immigration orders.

Democrats have been demanding a Homeland Security funding measure that doesn’t address the immigration orders.

“Time is running out, and the money is running out,” Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said Monday. “We can’t run out on homeland security. We’ve got to do our job and help them keep us safe and protect our country.”

Homeland Funding

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said McConnell’s proposal “doesn’t bring us any closer to actually funding DHS, and Republicans still have no real plan to achieve that goal.”

Obama told the nation’s governors that a shutdown of the agency will affect the economy and the nation’s security.

“These are folks who, if they don’t have a paycheck, are not going to be able to spend that money in your states,” Obama told members of the National Governors Association at the White House Monday. “It will have a direct impact on your economy, and it will have a direct impact on America’s national security, because their hard work helps to keep us safe.”

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said a shutdown would require 75 percent to 80 percent of his employees, including border patrol agents and members of the Coast Guard, to work without pay. The department would have to furlough 30,000 employees, including much of the headquarters staff.

‘One Step’

“Every day I press the staff at my headquarters to stay one step ahead of groups like ISIL and threats to our aviation security,” Johnson said in a news conference Monday, referring to the terror group Islamic State. “If we shut down, that staff is cut back to a skeleton.”

While Republican leaders were trying to pin the blame on Democrats, some Republicans warned that their party would shoulder the responsibility for any disruptions.

“For God’s sakes, don’t shut down the premier homeland security defense line called the Department of Homeland Security,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Monday on the “Fox & Friends” program. “If we do, as Republicans, we’ll get blamed.”

A new CNN/ORC poll showed that 53 percent of Americans would blame Republicans in Congress for a shutdown, while 30 percent would blame Obama. A majority said a shutdown, even for only a few days, would be a crisis or a major problem.

Boehner, asked in a “Fox News Sunday” interview aired Feb. 15 whether he was prepared to let the department’s funding lapse, said, “Certainly. The House has acted.”

The Senate vote Monday that failed to advance the House bill was 47-46 with 60 required.

Fiscal Year

Congress has funded the rest of the federal government through the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30. The House bill, H.R. 240, would fund the Homeland Security agency through the same period.

During the 16-day partial government shutdown in October 2013, many Homeland Security employees remained on the job because they were considered essential. That includes active Coast Guard members, customs officers, immigration law enforcement officers and airport-screening officials.

Other employees were placed on furlough. The department has estimated that a partial shutdown would affect about 5,500, or 10 percent, of workers in the Transportation Security Administration, mainly in management and administrative jobs.

Delayed Pay

In 2013, about one-third of the government’s 3 million workers who reported for duty weren’t paid until after the shutdown ended.

Separately, the Obama administration Monday asked a Texas judge to suspend an order that forced the White House to delay carrying out its immigration plans during a court challenge by Texas and 25 other states.

The administration gave U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, until the close of business Wednesday to act on his own before it goes directly to an appeals court in a bid to temporarily set aside his order.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jodi Schneider at jschneider50@bloomberg.net Laurie Asseo

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• Politics & Government
• Government
• Homeland Security
• President Barack Obama
• Mitch McConnell

Washington (AFP) – The US government asked a federal judge in Texas who derailed President Barack Obama’s immigration initiatives to suspend his decision, allowing programs protecting millions of undocumented immigrants to move forward pending an appeal.

Obama had used his executive power to bypass Congress and make controversial changes to the US immigration system that would provide protection and work permits to about four million undocumented foreigners.

But a US district court judge in Texas found last week that Obama had not followed necessary procedures to implement such a wide-ranging plan.

The White House quickly condemned the decision and vowed to fight to get the executive-action programs implemented.

Justice Department lawyers asked Judge Andrew Hanen Monday to stay his decision because Obama’s immigration program is a necessary to effectively police the border and protect national security.

Government lawyers will later formally appeal Hanen’s ruling.

The White House claims having immigration authorities police millions of law-abiding undocumented immigrants distracts them from more pressing threats to national security.

Obama’s new program would protect undocumented immigrants who have not committed crimes and have children who are American citizens or residents.

Twenty-six states, almost all Republican governed, had asked the federal court in Texas to block Obama’s immigration program on grounds he had acted unlawfully.

Immigration reform has long been a hot-button issue in Washington where many lawmakers agree the US system needs to change but rarely agree on how to fix it.

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• Barack Obama
• Texas