Washington, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House failed to pass a short-term funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS) as the department was catapulting toward a partial shutdown in less than 7 hours.
The three-week funding bill, which would financially support the DHS till March 19, failed by 203-224 in the House and further complicated the solving of the crisis of DHS defunding.
Earlier on Friday, a clean DHS funding bill, offered by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, passed by 68-31 in the Senate.
As the short-term funding bill failed to pass the House, the Senate clean bill was expected to be the last life-saving straw to prevent the shutdown.
However, House Speaker John Boehner was earlier mute about whether he would put the Senate bill up for a vote in the House.
Related:
Obama prefers short-term DHS funding over shutdown: White House
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- As lawmakers are racing to nail down a plan to save the Department of Homeland Security from running out of money in less than 10 hours, the White House said on Friday that U.S. President Barack Obama would sign a short-term funding bill if necessary to save the department from shutdown.
"If the president is faced with a choice of having the Department of Homeland Security shut down or fund(ing) that department for a short term, the president is not going to allow the agency to shut down," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. Full story
U.S. Senate passes clean DHS funding bill
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Senate on Friday passed a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without any provisions to attack U.S. President Barack Obama's contested 2014 immigration policies.
The bill, passed by 68-31 in the Senate, would cover the DHS through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year. Unlike the contested House-passed funding bill, the Senate bill does not entail any provisions to roll back Obama's 2014 executive actions on immigration which would shield as many as 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation. Full story
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