Stabenow: No ‘tricks’ from House Republicans on DHS bill

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said Wednesday that House Republicans will be responsible for shutting down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) if they reject a clean spending bill.

“This can’t be just a trick… Where we’re somehow voting straight up on Homeland Security funding without other riders on immigration… We vote and then it goes to House and it gets completely changed again. That is not going to work,” she said. “Let me stress [if] the House does less than what the Senate is going to do on fully funding Homeland Security… they are putting in place a shutdown.”  

{mosads}The Senate voted to take up the House-passed funding bill Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the legislation will be stripped of the controversial immigration provisions that caused the legislative stalemate before the Senate takes its final vote.  

But what the House would do with the legislation is unclear. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was largely silent on the matter at a press conference Wednesday. Conservative Republicans, meanwhile, have criticized the plan to separate the funding bill from the immigration fight.

“We have to make sure that there are no tricks and no double crosses when it comes to the House of Representatives,” Stabenow said. “Because we’re not going to support an effort to go back again and hold Homeland Security funding hostage to other policies and disagreements.”