Blunt won’t vote for ‘clean’ DHS bill

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Thursday that he won’t vote for a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that doesn’t also reverse President Obama’s actions on immigration.

“At least 22 times, President Obama said he didn’t have this authority. At least half a dozen of my Senate Democrat colleagues publicly agreed and objected to the president’s executive amnesty. We must uphold the Constitution and the law,” Blunt said in a statement.

Under a deal reached by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate will take up a House-passed bill to fund the department, but McConnell will strip the legislation of riders that would stop Obama’s deportation deferrals.

Blunt, who is up for reelection in 2016, said that the immigration measures are more likely to become law if they are attached to DHS funding.

“Obama is more likely to sign legislation that is attached to funding the department, which is why I still believe the House-passed bill was the right approach to addressing this problem,” he said.

Missouri Democratic Party spokesman Chris Hayden panned Blunt’s decision to vote against the bill. He said the senator is more concerned with “scoring political points” than funding DHS.

“Our national security should never be used as a political football, yet Senator Blunt sees no problem putting his Washington ambitions ahead of the security of Missouri families,” Hayden said in a statement. “Once again, Senator Blunt has shown that he is a self-interested Washington insider out of touch with the needs of Missourians.”

Updated at 12:47 p.m.