In an interesting game of ego’s Friday, a bill was passed by the Senate last minute that would fund the Department of Homeland Security for one week.
Initially Boehner had put together a bill in the House that would fund DHS for three weeks but it was not passed in a 203-224 vote. Fifty two Republicans voted against it which a top Congressional aide told me was simply because they were mad McConnell dropped the rider from the DHS funding bill they had passed prior so they were not going to make it easy for him.House Democrats also did not vote for the bill hoping they could force Republicans to fund the department for the full year free of any immigration riders but that did not work either.
Representative Devin Nunes (CA-R) had the following to say about the House vote:
take our poll - story continues belowDo you think the 2nd Amendment will be destroyed by the Biden Administration?(2)
Completing this poll grants you access to Shark Tank updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.You can’t say you want to fight and then not understand tactically how to fight. The 50 people who voted no are not only reckless, but they’re in favor of Obama’s amnesty.
Since that bill did not pass Boehner had to go back to the drawing board and with the support of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA-D) they were able to get a one week funding bill passed thru the House with a 357-60 vote right after 10 pm. 55 Republicans and 5 Democrats opposed the bill.
That bill was sent to the Senate which was passed in a voice vote. President Obama signed the bill right before midnight.Pelosi told Democrats:
Your vote tonight will assure that we will vote for full funding next week.
Whereas Boehner’s spokesman, Michael Steel denied a deal was cut with the Democrats to pass the clean DHS funding bill.
Congress is expected to focus on the DHS one year funding bill next week. Even though Boehner had previously refused to indicate if the House would take up the clean bill, last night amongst the chaos the House voted to approve a conference committee that would be able to negotiate a final DHS funding bill with the Senate.