Well into the fifth month of the fiscal year, the stand-off over 2015 funding for Homeland Security continues to highlight partisan divides.
Senate Republicans failed repeatedly last week to persuade any Democrats to join them in moving a spending bill forward that would undermine President Obama’s immigration policies. Stop-gap funding for Homeland Security is set to expire Feb. 27.
Well into the fifth month of the fiscal year, the stand-off over 2015 funding for Homeland Security continues to highlight partisan divides.
Senate Republicans failed repeatedly last week to persuade any Democrats to join them in moving a spending bill forward that would undermine President Obama’s immigration policies. Stop-gap funding for Homeland Security is set to expire Feb. 27.
Last month House Republicans passed Homeland Security spending legislation for the rest of the fiscal year. But while Republicans now enjoy majorities on both sides of Capitol Hill, they can be stymied in the Senate by united Democratic opposition.
Congress failed to pass any regular spending bills before the fiscal year began Oct. 1. In mid-December lawmakers finally passed a single massive spending plan for everything but Homeland Security, which they kept on stop-gap funding.
Republicans had hoped to play a stronger hand on immigration in the new Congress but so far have little to show for the delay. This is another good example of the need for bipartisan cooperation on difficult budget issues.
With the President’s proposed budget for Fiscal 2016 now on the table, it is high time to reach a deal on current-year Homeland Security funding and move ahead with the regular appropriations process.
