In an another development in the Homeland Security funding impasse, US House Speaker John Boehner has said that he is ready to allow the lapse of the funding for the department as part of a Republican’s efforts to roll back the controversial executive actions on immigration by President Barack Obama.
When asked if he was prepared to let the funding for the department lapse, Boehner said, “Certainly. The House has acted. We’ve done our job. Senate Democrats are the ones standing in the way and jeopardizing funding.”
The Democrats in the Senate have thrice blocked consideration of the Homeland Security appropriations bill this month. The funding bill has already been passed by the House.
“The Americans didn’t give us majority to fight between House and Senate Republicans. They want things to be done. You cannot cut funding from the Department of Homeland Security. We need to sit down and work this thing out,” Arizona Senator John McCain, a known Republican voice, said at a ‘Meet the Press’ event.
McCain made the remarks while referring to Republicans who took control of both the House and Senate after winning the congressional elections in November last year.
The Senate Democrats are not opposing the funding of the department, but they have strong objections against the Republicans’ House amendments that strip funding from Democratic President’s executive orders of 2012 and 2014 that lifts a deportation threat for millions of undocumented immigrants in the country.
Last week, Boehner had expressed his serious disappointment over Senate Democrats’ actions of stalling the bill, asking them that “when they are going to get off their ass and do something other than to vote no.”
The funding for the Department of Homeland Security will expire on February 27.
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