WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Republicans in the House of Representatives were planning to pursue today a temporary funding bill to keep the lights on at the U.S. domestic security agency for three weeks, postponing the threat of a partial agency shutdown.
As the clock ticked toward a midnight Friday deadline for funding the Department of Homeland Security, lawmakers said a stop-gap extension would buy time to try to work out differences between the Republican-controlled House and the Senate.
But as this approach gained favor late on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson sent a letter to congressional leaders in which he urged them to approve of a “clean,” full-year funding measure for the agency.
A temporary patch would mean more uncertainty for department employees “and puts us back in the same position, on the brink of a shutdown just days from now,” he said in the letter, which was distributed by email by Democratic House leadership.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, who has insisted on a full Homeland Security funding bill free of immigration reform restrictions that have caused weeks of delay, said on Thursday he would refuse to allow such negotiations with the House.
“It won’t happen,” Reid told a news conference.
It was also unclear if House Speaker John Boehner, facing disagreement among Republican factions, had the votes to win House passage of even a short-term extension. House Democratic leaders were urging their members to reject it, a party aide said.
“I think we’re going to get there,” Representative Blake Farenthold of Texas said of the stop-gap plan after a nearly two-hour meeting of House Republicans on Thursday evening.
He said House leaders would spend Thursday night counting votes and building support for the short-term extension.
Conservatives have demanded that Boehner stand firmly behind
a House-passed $39.7 billion bill that would pay for Homeland Security operations, but that would also block funding for Democratic President Barack Obama’s recent executive orders lifting the threat of deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants.
“It’s an effort to punt, like Republicans like to do,” said Representative Raul Labrador, a conservative from Idaho, adding that he could not support the plan.
But some other, more moderate Republicans also said they were not happy with the idea of a temporary funding fix at last year’s funding level.
