GOP leader offers immigration vote to try to resolve impasse

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Last edited Mon Feb 23, 2015, 10:17 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Days from a Homeland Security Department shutdown, Senate Republicans sought a way out Monday by splitting President Barack Obama's contested immigration measures from the agency's funding bill.

It was not clear whether the gambit by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would succeed ahead of Friday's midnight deadline to fund the department or see it shut down. It was far from certain whether it would win any Democratic support, and House conservatives remain firmly opposed to any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department that does not also overturn Obama's executive actions on immigration.

But with Senate Democrats united against a House-passed bill that funds the agency while blocking the president on immigration, McConnell said it was time for another approach.

"It's another way to get the Senate unstuck from a Democrat filibuster and move the debate forward," McConnell said on the Senate floor after a vote to advance the House-passed bill failed 47-46, short of the 60 votes needed. Three previous attempts earlier in the month had yielded similar results.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/062b64fd677c43fcbb10dd74ff1173d0/homeland-security-chief-budget-impasse-could-harm-states