GOP senator to House: ‘Here’s a straw so you can suck it up’

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) slammed House Republicans on Thursday for their decision to tie language overturning President Obama’s immigration actions to a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“I think this is a battle that Republicans should have never fought — junking up a DHS bill, especially when we get a threat against the Mall of America,” Kirk said following a Senate GOP conference lunch.

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He then suggested that House Republicans who have insisted on tying the two measures together would be left disappointed.

“I think the feeling of most people is this is the fight that we should have not fought,” Kirk said. “We really, as a governing party, we’ve got to fund DHS and say to the House, ‘Here’s a straw so you can suck it up.’”

Kirk warned Republicans to never again tie controversial riders to must-pass spending bills that affect U.S. national security. 

“I would say this battle should be the end of the strategy of attaching whatever you’re upset at the president [about] to a vital piece of government. I would be, in the future, strongly arguing that if it’s a vital piece of the government … the strategy of sticking whatever you’re interested in sticking Obama on should end now.”