Senate Democrats continue to block the Department of Homeland Security funding bill passed by the House. As we’ve reported, the House DHS appropriations bill is enforcement-heavy and seeks to squash President Obama’s executive overreach.
Not amused, Speaker Boehner held a press conference and minced no words:
“The House did its job. We won the fight to fund the Department of Homeland Security and to stop the President’s unconstitutional actions. Now, it’s time for the Senate to do their work. You know, in the gift shop out here [in the Capitol], they’ve got these little booklets on how a bill becomes a law. Alright? The House has done its job. Why don’t you go ask the Senate Democrats when they’re going to get off their ass and do something other than to vote ‘no.’”
Senators Sessions, Lee, and McConnell all issued strong statements calling out the Senate Democrats’ repeated attempts to obstruct voting on the bill.
“Senate Democrats, following their party leaders, blocked debate on this bill—a bill which fully funds every lawful activity of DHS. What the bill does not fund are actions that violate the law. Senate Democrats are voting to protect an imperial overreach and to deny citizens control over their own government. They are advancing an open-borders agenda against the will of the American people,” said Senator Sessions.
Senator Mike Lee called the Democrats’ behavior “embarrassing” saying, “Republicans are trying to keep their promise to the American people, do what they sent us here to do, and fund our homeland security while holding Democrats and the President accountable. But Senate Democrats refuse to even allow consideration of the DHS funding bill so they won’t have to declare where they stand on the President’s illegal and unconstitutional action on executive amnesty. This effort to try and hide from the American people is embarrassing.”
Meanwhile, Majority Leader McConnell called out Democratic Senators whose rhetoric isn’t consistent with their actions, saying, ““Democrats are blockading Homeland Security funding in order to defend executive overreach the President said himself he couldn’t take — many times over. As I indicated yesterday, this is the reason the Senate can’t move forward. So it needs to end. And here’s the simplest and most obvious way it can. Many Democrats previously indicated opposition to the kinds of overreach described by President Obama as ‘unwise and unfair.’ So all they have to do is back those words up with action. If Democrats claim to be against overreach and claim to be for funding the critical activities of the Department of Homeland Security, then there’s no reason for them to continue their party’s filibuster.”
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