WASHINGTON (AP) – Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared a Senate stalemate Tuesday over immigration provisions attached to a Homeland Security spending bill, and called on the House to make the next move to avoid an agency shutdown.
House Republicans said they had no intention of doing so, leaving Congress at an impasse with no clear way forward barely two weeks before the agency’s $40 billion budget shuts off.
“I can tell you I think it’s clearly stuck in the Senate,” McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters after a closed-door lunch of Senate Republicans. “And the next step is obviously up to the House.”
Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, responded with a statement seeking to put the focus on Senate Democrats. Democrats voted three times last week to block a House-passed bill that funds the department for the remainder of the budget year, while also overturning President Barack Obama’s executive actions limiting deportations for millions here illegally.
“Until there is some signal from those Senate Democrats what would break their filibuster, there’s little point in additional House action,” Steel said. Democrats say they can’t accept the bill unless the contentious language on immigration is removed.