The Republicans were on Tuesday blocked by the rival Democrats in the Senate from taking up a bill intended to provide funding for the Department of Homeland Security and rolled back President Barack Obama’s recent executive actions on the country’s immigration policy.
The actions by Republicans put a showdown over the federal agency as well as the Obama administration’s immigration policies.
The Homeland Security Department will run out of money at the end of the month.
The Republicans in Senate have been hoping to take up the legislation passed by the House that would provide funding for the security department through the fiscal year.
However, the USD 40 billion spending bill would also repeal the legal protections for over five million undocumented immigrants, including children, in the country.
The Democrats found the Opposition’s actions unacceptable, saying the President has promised a veto in case any legislation affects his executive actions over immigration policy.
The Republicans have blamed the Democrats for misusing a procedural maneuver in order to block the bill from being tabled in the Senate floor.
Meanwhile, the Congressional Republicans find themselves engaged in scrambling to fund the homeland department prior to going out of money on February 27, while pacifying most of their conservative members who are of the opinion that the American President has violated his constitutional authority and that the bill for homeland security is their best pull to fight back.
Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, the top Democrat from Maryland and a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, on Tuesday took to the Senate floor for expressing her “shock” that she was backing a procedural maneuver for preventing a spending bill from putting to a vote. She, however, asked her colleagues in the party to support a “clean” bill for funding the agency.
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