House GOP leaders forced to delay vote on Secure the Border First Act of 2015

The “Secure the Border First Act of 2015,” HR 399 in the House and S.208 in the Senate, cosponsored by Arizona Tea-Publicans Rep. Martha McSally in the House and Jeff Flake in the Senate, has run into trouble from conservative opponents who point out that the bill does nothing about President Obama’s executive orders for prosecutorial discretion in deferring deportations, and from the latest “storm of the century” to hit Washington, D.C.

The Hill reports, House delays border security bill vote:

The House won’t vote this week on a controversial GOP border security plan that conservatives complained would do little to stop President Obama’s order to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation.

Aides to Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who controls the floor schedule, said the blizzard pummeling the Northeast forced the cancellation of votes Monday night. And due to the shortened schedule this week, the vote on the border bill — originally slated for Wednesday — has been postponed until a later date.

But conservative opponents of the border legislation, authored by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas) [and cosponsored by Martha McSally (R-Arizona)], say the snowstorm gave GOP leaders a convenient excuse to pull the bill as they struggled to shore up support.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and a handful of conservative House allies have been warning fellow Republicans about the McCaul bill. They say Senate leaders might try to take up the border bill to fight Obama’s immigration actions while abandoning a tougher, House-passed bill that would block funding for the president’s unilateral efforts.

“Voting for a feeble border bill would just help the Senate leadership strip out the House defund measure,” said one GOP aide. “GOP leaders are therefore having trouble whipping the votes. House members don’t want to help leaders across the chamber detract from their defund measure.”

The McCaul legislation would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prevent all illegal crossings into the U.S. within five years, giving the agency billions of dollars for drones, fencing and other technology and equipment.

No decision has been made about if or when the McCaul bill will be brought back to the floor. House leadership had hoped to discuss the bill with members during votes Monday night and the weekly GOP caucus meeting Tuesday morning, aides said.

Funding for the DHS is expected to run out at the end of February. The Republicans’ “defund” measure would tie the agency’s funding to their efforts to fight Obama’s immigration actions. But the bill appears to lack the 60 votes needed to move through the Senate.

So naturally that’s the bill to which nativist Tea Party conservatives in the House are hitching their wagon, desiring the theater of a partial government shutdown of DHS over President Obama’s executive orders, because maximum confrontation with the lawless secret Muslim Marxist Kenyan in the White House is what the conservative media entertainment complex demands to support far-right fund raising.

When the Senate cannot muster the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster of any “defund DHS” bill in the Senate, where does this leave the Septuagenarian Ninja Turtle Mitch McConnell with the nativist Tea Party conservative base of the GOP? They kill their own kind, Mitch.

God help the GOP if there is a terrorist attack in the U.S. during their shutdown  of DHS over their hatred of President Obama.

It appears that the TanMan and the Septuagenarian Ninja Turtle are on the verge of losing control of their caucus and may be forced to break their pledge of no government shutdowns on their watch, because haters gotta hate.