Jeh DHS Shutdown Request
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson (C) and former Homeland Security secretaries Michael Chertoff (R) and Tom Ridge (L) speak to reporters on "the need for Congress to pass a full-year appropriations bill for the Homeland Security Department" in Washington February 25, 2015. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday called on counterparts in the Senate to act on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which could face a partial shutdown unless the congressional funding fight is resolved by Friday. REUTERS/Kevin

All week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has lobbied politicians on the Hill not to “shut down” his agency, which oversees everything from border security, to national defense to airport screenings. His agency released factsheets (Coast Guard pensioners would lose their pay) and signed a tweet every hour with the hashtag #funddhs. It wouldn’t be a complete shutdown, but 30,000 of Johnson's employees would be furloughed, and over 200,000 would be forced to work without pay.

On Friday, the U.S. Senate passed a budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that would fund the agency through September, the end of the fiscal year. The bill passed 68-31. The “clean” bill would not require any modifications of the White House's immigration policies unveiled in November. However, without the cooperation of Congress the Senate is unlikely to solve the DHS funding crisis, which has slogged through Washington for months.

Democrats in the Senate had blocked a bill passed by the House that would have tied DHS funding to a reversal of immigration action. Republican leaders in the Senate relented earlier this week, agreeing to parse off the immigration complaints into a separate bill. It was rejected on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Republican Congress proposed a bill to kick the DHS-funding can down the road for a mere three weeks. They have until midnight on Friday to pass a bill and avoid a DHS shutdown. As of Thursday night The Hill’s live vote whip list had 17 Republicans in the house who said that they would not or probably would not vote for a clean DHS funding bill, 12 that said “yes” or leaned “yes,” and 3 that were undecided.

If the congressional version of the bill does pass, the Hill will likely be in the same situation three weeks from now, as Congress' stopgap measure would expire on March 19th. That would mean a sort of Groundhog Day for Jeh Johnson, who would have to parade his factsheets and #funddhs hashtags all over again. Late in the afternoon, California Democrat Representitive Eric Swalwell shared a tweet of his own, mocking Congressional Republican John Boehner with a meme inspired by House of Cards.

The speaker called the Senate bill "blackmail" and vowed to continue to fight the President's immigration actions.

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