Senate Gridlocked as GOP Blocks Bill to Reopen DHS
The Senate convenes but Republicans refuse to pass a House bill that would reopen the Department of Homeland Security, as partisan gridlock continues in Congress.
Congress remains in a stalemate over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding, as the Senate has failed to take up a bill passed by the House to reopen the agency. Republican senators have refused to consider the House bill, leaving the DHS in limbo.
"If we had something good to go today, we could have done it today," said Senator John Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota, on Monday. The impasse comes as the DHS faces the prospect of a partial shutdown if Congress does not act before the agency's funding expires on February 27th.
The House passed a bill last week that would fund the DHS through the end of the fiscal year, without provisions to roll back President Obama's executive actions on immigration. GOP leaders in the Senate have insisted that any DHS funding bill must also include language to block those immigration policies, a demand that Democrats have refused to accept.
{{IMAGE_PLACEHOLDER}}Source: The New York Times
