The DC Media daily Brony Opera.
Posted on 02/27/2015 3:39:26 PM PST by maggief
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) slammed House Republicans Friday after lawmakers failed to pass a short-term bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which runs out of money at midnight.
"The Republican Congress has shown that it simply cannot govern. Two months into the Republican Congress, we are already staring a Homeland Security shutdown square in the face, even as terrorists around the world threaten to strike America," the Nevada Democrat said in a statement after the House vote.
The bill failed 203-224. More than 50 Republicans voted against the legislation, which would have funded the department through March 19.
Reid wasn't wasn't alone in his criticism.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) suggested that the failure to pass the DHS bill created a bleak outlook for how House lawmakers would handle larger budget debates expected this year.
“The DHS funding fight is the first test of the new Republican Congress, and so far they’re failing," the New York Democrat said in a statement. "If the Republicans can’t even fund something as simple as Homeland Security, we shudder to think what will happen when it’s time to fund the whole government or raise the debt ceiling.”
Schumer and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said the failed vote left Boehner with only one option: pass a "clean" bill to fully fund the department through September. The Senate passed similar legislation Friday morning.
"Speaker Boehner is out of cards to play here—he must put the clean, Senate-passed bill on the floor now or risk a homeland security shutdown," Durbin said in a statement.
But what the next step is for funding the department, or if a partial shutdown would be avoided, wasn't immediately clear. The Senate recessed Friday afternoon waiting for the short-term funding bill to be taken up in the House. Senators were expected to pass the legislation, if it had passed the House.
Schumer, as well as Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), spoke to reporters ahead of the House vote on Friday. Though they all criticized House Republicans for taking up the stopgap legislation, they also said they would "reluctantly" support it in the Senate.
"We'd much prefer they pass full funding," Schumer said. "Obviously, we're not going to shut down the government. ... We'll support it, but very reluctantly."
Reid’s definition of “govern” is do exactly as I say or your a terrorist hater racist bigoted traitor.
Stupid Harry and Nancy don’t realize that DHS is being run by ISIS.
Screw ‘em.
if you take the larger view, it was the Dems in the Senate and then the Dems in the House that stoped funding for DHS
Well said!
Cordially,
“Now the story is shutdown, not conference with the Senate.”
You forgot to put “” around “shutdown.”
It appears boehner was trying to do obama’s bidding but 50 or so Conservative Republicans and almost all the democrats wouldn’t let him. The Conservatives and democrats want all or nothing it’s just that they disagree on what the all is.
I'm confused here.
Are we seeing the difference between a chamber that represents the people at odds with a chamber that represents the states, or a game between a few men in Congress?
-PJ
or......
In order to keep the House in control, conservatives were designated to vote with the Democrats to kill the bill.
by so doing, the House keeps control of the money. There was no risk in the gambit, it was a sure thing
After the move, the Democrats in both the Senate and the House are responsible for ending the DHS. The government was not shut down, the DHS was ended until a new department can be legislated
Thanks for the vote list, Maggie.
You write that as if it wasn’t Boehner’s plan all along; that he was ‘somehow’ hook-winked/duped.
Hasn’t everyone seen enough of the Cryer and the Turtle to know they don’t a flying f* about We the People, let alone our Country?
Awwww poor wittle Hawwy Weid is all bent out of shape
mt heart bleeds for the pompus little jerk. The senate ought to invoke the nuclear option until the end of O’s term so we can get things passed
Well done House Of Reps!
Amen!
I don’t believe it was an exercise machine. I think some of his activites ran afoul of some of his legally challenged friends. I think he was taught a lesson. Just my opinion.
The DC Media daily Brony Opera.
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