02.27.15

Senate Will Vote Today on DHS Funding, Consider Executive Overreach Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding votes on Department of Homeland Security funding and the President’s executive overreach on immigration:

“This morning, the Senate will complete work on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. And then, we’ll turn to Senator Collins’ bill. It’s common-sense legislation that would protect our democracy from the egregious example of executive overreach we saw in November. It deserves broad support.
 
“Remember: President Obama said more than 20 times he couldn’t take those kinds of actions. He even referred to overreach like that as ‘ignoring the law.’ So Senator Collins’ measure simply takes the President at his word, and helps him follow the law instead of ignoring it.

“The Collins bill also provides Democrats who led their constituents to believe they’d address executive overreach with a chance to show they were at least a little bit serious. Democrats won't achieve that by filibustering Homeland Security. And Democrats won't achieve it by holding hypocritical press conferences, just hours after voting to block funding for DHS.
 
“But they can help us pass a sensible bill from Senator Collins that would hold the executive branch to account. After so many weeks of senseless filibustering, that’s the least these Democrats owe their constituents.”

Related Issues: Appropriations, Senate Democrats, Immigration, Executive Orders