House Fails to Approve Funds for Homeland Security - New York Times

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Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, called any short-term measure "a failure." Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Friday failed to pass their own proposal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, leaving lawmakers scrambling to keep the agency open just hours before money is set to run out at midnight.

The House had hoped to extend funding for three weeks in order to avert a partial shutdown of the department, but could not assemble the votes. It fell by 224 to 203.

The embarrassing defeat for House Speaker John A. Boehner and his leadership team came after the Senate had passed its own legislation in the morning to fund the department through the fiscal year.

House Republicans had hoped to pass their own counterproposal, a short-term measure fund the department for three weeks, pushing the fight over President Obama’s immigration policies into March.

But after a day of behind-the-scenes arm twisting and cajoling, the temporary fix collapsed during a tense vote on the House floor Friday evening. Many of the conference’s more conservative measures refused to support their leadership’s bill, and House Democrats remained largely unified, leaving Mr. Boehner without the necessary votes.

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Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has promised to reverse Congress’s pattern of hurtling from crisis to crisis. Credit J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press Continue reading the main story

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The fight over continuing to finance the Department of Homeland Security.

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Continue reading the main story

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As the bill was defeated, a lawmaker from the Republican side of the chamber shouted, “Good luck!”

House Republicans are now regrouping, scrambling to rally the necessary votes — or come up with another last ditch solution — and the majority leader advised that there could be more votes later Friday evening.

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