Washington - US senators returned to Washington on Monday with little time and dimming prospects for averting a partial shutdown of the government agency tasked with keeping the US border secure.
The Homeland Security Department's $40 billion budget is set to run out Friday at midnight because of a dispute over President Barack Obama's executive actions to limit deportation for millions of immigrants in the United States illegally. Republicans who control both houses of Congress believe Obama's actions go beyond his presidential authority.
Obama warned the nation's governors at a White House meeting that the looming shutdown would have a direct impact on their states' economies, as well as on security throughout the United States. Most of the department's 230,000 employees would have to keep working after the deadline, but would not receive pay until Congress authorizes funding.
“They all work in your states,” Obama told the governors. “These are folks who, if they don't have a paycheck, are not going to be able to spend that money in your states.”
An evening vote was set in Congress to advance legislation to fund the agency, but senators already have cast three previous such votes and the result Monday was expected to be the same. Senate Democrats were likely to block consideration of a bill passed by the House of Representatives because it includes provisions overturning Obama's immigration actions.
A federal judge's ruling last week that put Obama's immigration program on hold increased calls from a few Republican senators to pass a “clean” Homeland Security Bill without the contested language on immigration. Some Senate Republicans say the immigration dispute should be resolved in court so the party doesn't get blamed for not funding Homeland Security, but House Republicans said they had no plans to revisit the issue.
The US government asked the judge Monday to put his ruling on hold while it appeals the decision.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson scheduled a news conference Monday afternoon to repeat his warnings about the harmful impacts of shutting down his agency.
Johnson said the furloughs could harm the US response to terrorism, such as the purported threat late Saturday by the East Africa-based al-Shabab terror group to attack Minnesota's Mall of America.
Some 80 percent of Federal Emergency Management Agency workers would be furloughed even as that agency contends with two months of devastating snowfall and cold from New England to the Mountain States.
But some Republicans have argued that because the large majority of agency staff would keep working, albeit without getting paid, the harmful impacts of a shutdown were being exaggerated.
Sapa-AP