In a show of political gamesmanship, the U.S. House of Representatives late Friday approved a one-week spending measure to avert a partial shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Reuters reports.
With just hours to spare before a midnight deadline, the news outlet writes, the House voted 357-60 to fund DHS, which is headed by Secretary Jeh Johnson. The vote came amid a day of chaos as conservatives issued an angry rebuke to Republican House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) over the funding, the report notes.
The Senate approved the one-week funding measure earlier in the day, and President Barack Obama was expected to quickly sign it, according to Reuters.
The standoff over funding for the department raised new questions about Boehner’s ability to lead his caucus, even with a Republican-controlled Congress. The House spurned a three-week funding extension for the agency after conservatives complained that the measure did not thwart Obama’s executive actions on immigration, Reuters reports. But later in the evening, House Democrats provided the votes to pass a one-week extension, averting a partial shutdown of the agency.
U.S. Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), a Tea Party favorite who voted against the temporary measure, criticized Boehner as not trying hard enough to undo Obama’s executive actions on immigration. According to Reuters, when asked whether the House leadership should change, Fleming said, “Obviously, we're not getting good results."
Meanwhile, Democrats expressed optimism that a nearly $40 billion spending plan for DHS, which already passed in the Senate, would advance in the House next week, the report says. The department was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and includes the Coast Guard and the Secret Service.
Read more at Reuters.