Quick process hit: Senate will vote on a clean DHS bill. Why that looked likely last Monday.
Today Senate Republicans are moving forward on the inevitable. They will vote on a clean DHS funding bill with no immigration riders attached. With time running out they struck a deal with Democrats, which Minority Leader Harry Reid agreed to a couple hours ago.
The key point here is that DHS will come up for a clean vote. There will be no immigration vote or amendment included in the deal. Future responses to the President’s immigration action will come up for a vote through the cloture process later this week.
A clean DHS funding bill was a virtual certainty after the Senate recessed on February 12th. Failing to invoke cloture before the recess put Republicans in an unwinnable situation. With time running out there was only one procedural avenue available to Senate Republicans to avoid a DHS shutdown: unanimous consent. That requires the consent of all 46 Democrats to proceed. If McConnell’s statement was any indication, Democratic consent was contingent on a clean DHS bill with no immigration votes.
It’s unclear if Republicans were put in this position through a botched strategy or conference politics. Democrats refused to proceed to the bill. Presumably, they would have continued to filibuster until the immigration riders were stripped. It’s possible – but certainly not clear – that if Republicans compromised earlier in the process they could have found a package that would have attracted six Democrats to invoke cloture. That’s purely speculative and will come to light in the coming days as McConnell moves forward on the separate bill responding to Obama’s executive action. Regardless, their current position gives them no negotiating leverage. As soon as the Senate gaveled-in Monday Republicans’ hands were tied. The next step was to either let DHS funding lapse or forego attempts to respond to Obama through DHS appropriations.
Many on the right may accuse McConnell of caving to Democrats before the shutdown. However, by blinking first he’s biting the bullet and moving the Congress closer to funding DHS. Whether the House follows suit remains to be seen.
