Budget deadlock may shut down Department of Homeland Security

The agency is caught up in a fight over President Barack Obama's immigration actions, with February 27 as the date when the $40 billion budget would shut off.
A House-passed bill would cover the department through September 30, the end of the current budget year, and overturn Obama's move to limit deportations for millions of immigrants who are in the United States illegally

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner is raising the possibility that the Department of Homeland Security may shut down at the end of the month because of a budget impasse.
He blamed Democrats, but Democrats responded by saying responsibility would fall on the Republican and the country would suffer. The department was created after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The agency is caught up in a fight over President Barack Obama's immigration actions, with February 27 as the date when the $40 billion budget would shut off.
A House-passed bill would cover the department through September 30, the end of the current budget year, and overturn Obama's move to limit deportations for millions of immigrants who are in the United States illegally.
But in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has declared a stalemate and urged the House to make the next move.

Senate Democrats, while in the minority, have been able to block action on the bill in protest of the Republican language on immigration.
When asked if he were prepared to let department funding run out, Boehner told Fox News, "Certainly. The House has acted. We've done our job."
Democrats pounced. In linking immigration and the budget, Boehner "knew exactly what he was doing," said Senator Chuck Schumer.
Drew Hammill, spokesman for House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, said there are enough votes in the House now to pass legislation without the immigration provisions "if only Speaker Boehner will get out of the way".
Earlier Sunday, Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, tried to pressure the Republican-run Congress to act. During an appearance on CBS, he noted that Congress would keep getting paid, but vital employees at the border and airports, among other places, would have to work without pay while the funding dispute lingered.
Most department employees fall into exempted categories of workers who stay on the job in a shutdown because they perform work considered necessary to protect human life and property.
About 200,000 of the agency's approximately 230,000 employees would keep working even if Congress fails to fund their agency.