WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The issue of funding the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will rest on the US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, after the US Senate votes on legislation to fund the agency, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.
“Right now, everybody expects that that piece of legislation, when it actually comes up to a vote, will get bipartisan support, and so the question in will be whether or not the Speaker of the House [Boehner] is going to put it on the floor,” Earnest said on Thursday.
“If it is necessary for the President [Obama] to speak to him directly about how important it is to fund the department of homeland security, he will have that conversation,” he added.
“If it is necessary for the President [Barack Obama] to speak to him [Boehner] directly, about how important it is to fund the Department of Homeland Security, he will have that conversation,” Earnest concluded.
Earlier on Thursday, Boehner said that he is yet decide how to proceed with the “clean” DHS Appropriation Act, which will not include immigration restrictions only if the US Senate passes it.
US Senate Democrats have blocked previously proposed DHS funding bills from coming to a vote because Republicans had included provisions barring funding for Obama’s November 2014 executive order that provides deportation relief for millions of illegal immigrants living in the United States.
US Congress has until February 27 to pass a bill to fund the DHS or face a partial shutdown of the agency.
