House passes bill to fully fund Homeland Security

The House passed a bill Tuesday afternoon to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year, sending it to President Obama for his expected signature. The measure will not target Obama’s executive actions on immigration, giving Democrats what they have long demanded and potentially enraging conservatives bent on fighting the president on immigration.

The vote was 257-167, with some Republicans joining all Democrats who voted to pass the bill, which had already cleared the Senate.

“As you’ve heard me say a number of times, the House has done its job by passing legislation to fund DHS and block the president’s executive actions on immigration,” Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio) told rank-and-file Republicans in a Tuesday morning meeting, according to a person in the room. “Unfortunately, the fight was never won in the other chamber.”

The vote marked a big win for Democrats, who have long demanded that Congress pass a “clean” bill to fund DHS free of any immigration riders. For weeks, Boehner and his top deputies have refused to take up such a bill, as conservatives have demanded using the DHS debate to take on Obama’s directives, which include action to prevent the deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), the third-ranking Senate Democrat, said he was “pleased” House Republicans cleared the way for the DHS bill to pass but added that he feared future showdowns fueled by House conservatives would seriously imperil the future work of Congress. “I also shudder for the future of this Congress,” he said.

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