Shutdown of U.S. Security Super-Agency Averted as Senate Votes to Clear Passage of Funding Bill

The U.S. Senate voted 98-2 on Wednesday allowing the Department of Homeland Security funding bill to proceed after weeks of standoff between Senate Republicans and Democrats, thus averting a Feb. 28 partial shutdown of a super-agency primarily responsible for U.S. domestic security.

The vote clears a path for passage of an agency funding bill free of contentious immigration reform provisions. The Senate will thus be able to vote to clear a stand-alone funding for the D.H.S. before a midnight Friday deadline.

The D.H.S. was set up after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and includes the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and border, immigration and other agencies.

Senate Democrats have blocked the bill in the last few weeks, insisting that it should not include the provisions that would withhold funds to the President's immigration programs.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said the House needed to pass a clean D.H.S. bill with "no tricks."

"This isn't the time for games," he said, according to Reuters.

Prior to the Senate vote, Republican Senator and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell finally gave his nod for the passage of a clean funding bill for the D.H.S. without the riders aimed at blocking the immigration executive actions announced by President Obama last November.

On the Senate floor Wednesday, McConnell announced that they have agreed to pass the funding bill for the D.H.S. whose funding source will shut down on Feb. 28.

"In the meantime, we've offered Democrats the chance to prove they were serious about something else: funding the Department of Homeland Security," he said.

At the same time, McConnell announced that another bill will be introduced that will tackle President Obama's immigration programs.

"The dual-pronged approach I've outlined — allowing the Senate to stop 'unwise and unfair' overreach on the one hand, and to fund D.H.S. through the fiscal year on the other — is a sensible way forward," he said.

McConnell said later this week a bill will be introduced by Sen. Susan Collins from Maine about Obama's immigration programs. "Senator Collins' sensible bill focuses simply on preventing that most egregious example of executive overreach from taking effect. It's as simple as that," he said.

In a statement, Reid said, "Democrats have said all along that we are more than happy to have an immigration debate here on the Senate floor, so long as we first fully fund the Department of Homeland Security."

"The Majority Leader should allow a vote on the Mikulski-Shaheen funding bill which is sitting on the floor calendar," he said. "That is the only way to resolve this mess, which Republicans created. The only thing that can pass the Senate is a clean bill to fund Homeland Security."

House Speaker John Boehner said he will wait for the Senate's action before he decides. "Until the Senate does something, we're in a wait-and-see mode," Boehner said.