海角大神

For the better part of the past month, the Senate has been tied down in a debate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security and deportation deferral program that the president announced in November. As you may recall, during the lame duck session, Congress passed a budget that fully funded virtually the entire federal government through the end of the fiscal year in September. The budget for the Department of Homeland Security, however, was only funded through the end of February. At the time, the move was seen as an opportunity for the newly elected Republican Congress to make some kind of statement about the president鈥檚 executive action. In January, the House passed a bill that purported to fund DHS in all respects except for those directly tied to the deportation relief program. For the past month, though, that bill has been tied up in the Senate due to what continues to be a successful Democratic filibuster effort. With the fourth failed cloture vote Monday night,聽Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell appears to be moving on to Plan B:

McConnell鈥檚 rhetoric makes it seems like he thinks that he鈥檚 trapped Democrats who have been unwilling to take a stand on the president鈥檚 deferred deportation program, and that鈥檚 how the聽National Journal聽characterizes is, but it seems clear to me that this is nothing short of a recognition by McConnell that the shutdown strategy has failed. As in previous cases, Republicans have obviously hoped that the threat of a shutdown at DHS would force Democrats to cave in and allow a DHS bill that 鈥渄efunded鈥� the president鈥檚 deportation relief program to pass the Senate. The recent ruling by a federal judge in Texas striking down the program has no doubt given them some degree of hope, notwithstanding the fact that another federal judge in Washington, D.C. has ruled completely differently. In the end, though, it鈥檚 obvious that neither party wants to get to the point where it鈥檚 the end of the day on Friday and there hasn鈥檛 been a budget passed for the Department of Homeland Security. The question has always been which party which blink first. For the moment at least, it appears that the Republicans are ones getting ready to cave in. If McConnell鈥檚 proposal passes, then we鈥檒l see the budget for DHS approved in full, including that portion covering the deferred deportation program. The second bill purporting to repeal the president鈥檚 program, even if it did pass the House and Senate, would quite obviously be vetoed and that veto would not be overridden. In the end, it would be a purely symbolic vote.

The big question, of course, is whether or not this will go over well with the House Republicans, who would have to pass a new DHS funding bill for this to go to the Senate. The initial comments regarding McConnell鈥檚 plan from House Speaker John Boehner have been muted, but seemingly positive, but the real test will come today when the House Republican caucus holds its weekly meeting. That will be the first initial test of how things are likely to go in the House if this plan goes forward, and it will likely lead to Boehner and the rest of the leadership having to once again make a choice between keeping the government running and appeasing the right wing of their caucus. Given the fact that funding runs out in two days, there isn鈥檛 much time for them to decide.

Doug Mataconis appears on the Outside the Beltway blog at http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/.