GOP offers vote on Homeland Security

With partial agency shutdown nearing, senators in a bind.

WASHINGTON — With a partial agency shutdown looming, Senate Republicans offered on Tuesday to permit a vote on Homeland Security funding legislation that would be stripped of immigration provisions backed by conservatives but strongly opposed by President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats.

“We could have that vote very quickly,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said as his party struggled to escape a political predicament of its own making involving an agency with major anti-terrorism responsibilities.

McConnell said he did not know how the Republican-controlled House would respond if a stand-alone spending bill passed the Senate.

Underscoring the realities of divided government, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada initially said he wouldn’t agree to the proposal unless it had the backing of House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.

With many House Republicans still returning to Washington after a weeklong vacation, Boehner’s office issued a statement that neither accepted nor rejected the proposal that McConnell outlined after weeks of gridlock.

“The speaker has been clear: The House has acted, and now Senate Democrats need to stop hiding. Will they continue to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security or not?” said a spokesman, Michael Steel.

Senate Republican officials said McConnell’s offer of a vote on a standalone funding bill also envisions a vote on a separate measure to repeal a directive from Obama last fall that shields about 4 million immigrants from deportation even though they live in the United States illegally.

At the same time, the proposal would eliminate an attempt by the House to repeal an earlier presidential order that allows tens of thousands of immigrants to remain in the country if they were brought here illegally as youngsters by their parents.

The maneuvering occurred as the president’s party raised the specter of terrorism and the Republicans countered that it was the Democrats who were preventing an orderly renewal of funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

At a news conference a few hours before McConnell spoke, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., urged Republicans to “fund our security and not to send a message to al-Shabab that we’re going to shut down Homeland Security.”

Klobuchar’s state is home to the Mall of America, an enormous facility that was singled out as a potential terror target in a video released by alShabab, an Islamic militant group linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has urged anyone considering a trip to the shopping mall to be particularly careful.

For their part, Republicans sought to pin the blame for the standoff on Democrats, pointing out that they blocked Senate action four times on the combined funding-immigration bill.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Sen. Amy Klobuchar (center), D-Minn., with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (left), D-Nev., and other Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill, talks about the urgency of funding Homeland Security.