The Department of Homeland Security is moving closer to a shutdown, meaning Southern Arizona Border Patrol agents and other DHS employees will be expected to work for vouchers or be furloughed. Talking Points Memo reports:

House Republican leaders are refusing to support legislation that funds the Department of Homeland Security without imposing immigration policy restrictions, a sign that the department is headed for a partial shutdown Friday night.

The legislation is all but guaranteed to pass the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) have championed it in an agreement to bring up immigration bills separately. Even conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has signaled he won’t hold up the “clean” DHS bill ahead of the Friday midnight deadline to avert a shutdown.

But in the House, it’s a very different story. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), facing a rebellion from his members, isn’t ready to swallow the standalone DHS bill just yet, and is exploring options to continue fighting President Barack Obama’s initiatives on immigration.

“We want to stop the president’s immigration actions with regard to immigration,” Boehner told reporters Thursday. “It’s outrageous that Senate Democrats are using Homeland Security funding for blackmail to protect the actions of the president. … We’re waiting to see what the Senate can or can’t do, and then we’re going to make decisions about how to proceed.”

Among members of Arizona’s Southern Arizona congressional delegation, Democrats Raul Grijalva and Ann Kirkpatrick support a clean funding bill without amendments targeting the Obama administration’s recent executive actions on immigration, while Republican Martha McSally has declined to say whether she supports a clean funding bill. McSally voted to attach the amendments to the bill, but wrote in the USA Today yesterday that the Homeland Security funding shouldn’t be attached to the fight against the expanded program to shield up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. But she also declined to tell the Weekly if she would support a clean funding bill.

This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 4, 2015.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

8 replies on “Homeland Security Moving Closer To Shutdown”

  1. Martha is apparently still waiting to be told how she plans to vote on this. This must be that leadership stuff she said she’s good at.

  3. The lady who came back to Tucson to run for Congress shows how much she cares about the Southern Arizonans who voted for her because she could get them border security. Now she’s got her $174,000 a year job, so she is kowtowing to Boehner and not being upfront about her position on this major border security issue. When will we learn that a home-grown member of the House of Representatives is best for Southern Arizona?

  4. LOL, how did anyone who voted for her think she wold actually start giving answers and opinions once she was elected?

    Let me know if anyone is able to get her or her staff to return a call or email from a registered voter either, it’s like there is a cardboard cut out of her in the office and no one’s really there.

  5. Go to her house.gov website and TRY to find her committee assignments.
    You have to fill out a form requesting that important information. And no doubt you will then be on a mailing list.

  6. From what I just read the Homeland thing is attached to the supporting of the illegals and not deporting them. I would not vote for that either. Homeland is not doing their job (because the WH won’t let them) and close the border. Put the money towards deporting these people back where they came from. If the democrats/ liberals wanted to help those people them help them cross the border legally with the proper papers. We should not have to support them when we have plenty of our own homeless, veterans and poor that needs help.

  8. McSally is in a tough spot. Let’s review:

    1. D2 is the most competitive congressional district in the country.
    2. She has to run for reelection in 2016, a presidential election year which means Democrats will vote in higher numbers than they do during mid term elections. Keep in mind she barely won the mid term even with near record low turnout of Dems.
    3. In order to gain a foothold on leadership and get positions on committees she is going to have to kowtow to the right wing nuts who control the house, who do not happen to represent competitive districts.

    She seems to have two options:

    1. Represent the people who elected you at the potential cost of losing out of committee appointments in the future but with the added benefit of being able to run a competitive campaign in 2016.

    2. Go along with the house leadership, ignoring your constituents. The cost? She will lose in 2016. The benefit? She will probably land some high paying lobbying or consulting gig.

    What will she choose? Being a good elected leader, representing her constituents on the border who need Homeland to stay funded? Or will she go with a self serving career path decision that pleases her bosses in DC?

    What do I think she should do? She should come out and publicly support a clean funding bill. Time to wipe that egg of your face McSally.

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