WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders on Sunday demanded that Democrats begin negotiations on funding for the Homeland Security Department and President Barack Obama’s unilateral actions on immigration. Democrats showed no indication they were willing to talk, and some Republicans said the party should simply surrender and give the agency money without conditions.
With a partial shutdown of the department possible at week’s end, Speaker John Boehner said the House wants to enter talks with the Senate on a final bill and pointed to today’s scheduled Senate vote. Congress late Friday cleared a one-week extension for the department after 52 House conservatives defied their leadership and helped scuttle legislation that would have given the agency a three-week reprieve.
“We want to get a conference with the Senate. Now, they’ve made clear that they don’t want to go to conference. But they’re going to have a vote. If they vote, in fact, not to get a conference, this bill may be coming back to the House,” Boehner said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Friday’s humiliating defeat produced a backlash in the House, with some Republicans criticizing their conservative colleagues and others arguing it was time to fully fund the agency for the year and move on.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a former chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, said Boehner needs to find a way to get a bill to the House floor without the divisive immigration provisions.
“There’s no doubt it will pass. … We cannot allow this small group to block it. Once … this comes to a vote, we get it behind us, we go forward, then we really, as Republicans, have to stand behind the speaker … .,” King said.
A day earlier, Rep. Devin Nunes, the California Republican who heads the House Intelligence Committee, chastised “a small group of phony conservative members who have no credible policy proposals and no political strategy to stop Obama’s lawlessness” and seem to be “unaware that they can’t advance conservatism by playing fantasy football with their voting cards.”
Conservatives were angered enough by a three-week funding extension with no rollback of the directives Obama signed in November to spare millions of immigrants from deportation and by Democrats insisting on full-year funding to sink the legislation.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed to a one-week extension and told her Democratic rank and file in a letter to back the seven-day patch because, “your vote will assure that we will vote for full funding next week.”
Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the No. 3 House Republican said Sunday there was no such deal.
But privately, a senior Democratic congressional aide said Boehner spoke to Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and committed to bringing up a bill without conditions. The person spoke anonymously to relate a private conversation.
Boehner on Sunday acknowledged that Friday “wasn’t all that fun,” but called the House a “rambunctious place.”
“We have 435 members. A lot of members have a lot of different ideas about what we should and shouldn’t be doing,” Boehner said.
Scalise defended Boehner’s actions as speaker.
“He’s working hard to get our agenda moved through the House and we’ve already seen some good action,” Scalise said.
A spokesman for Reid said Sunday there will be no negotiations with the House over Homeland Security funding and immigration. Senate Democrats are expected to block any plans for formal talks in Monday night’s vote.
“Sen. Reid has been clear for days on the fact that there will be no conference,” said Adam Jentleson, Reid’s spokesman. “House Republicans want a conference for counterproductive reasons: They want to take a clean bill that can pass Congress and be signed into law and turn it into something that can’t pass by loading it back up with poison pill riders.”
A so-called clean bill, in this instance, is one that focuses solely on the funding and does not include the immigration provisions.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she doesn’t envision Senate Democrats budging.
“We want a clean bill. We have passed, taken votes on a clean bill. It’s well known,” Feinstein said. “And, I see nothing else happening, other than a clean bill.”
Scalise was on “Fox News Sunday,” King spoke on ABC’s “This Week” and Feinstein made her comments on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
By BRADLEY KLAPPER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday tried to calm tensions with Israel before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s congressional address, yet insisted the Obama administration’s diplomatic record with Iran entitles the U.S. to “the benefit of the doubt” as negotiators work toward a long-term nuclear deal.
On a mission to warn of the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran, the prime minister arrived in Washington for the speech the White House didn’t want him to give.
Kerry said in an interview broadcast before he arrived in Switzerland for talks with Iran’s foreign minister that Netanyahu was welcome to speak in the U.S. and that the administration did not want the event “turned into some great political football.”
That sentiment was a step back from some of the sharp rhetoric between the allies in recent weeks, and Kerry mentioned that he talked to Netanyahu as recently as Saturday.
But Kerry stressed that Israel was safer as a result of the short-term nuclear pact that world powers and Iran reached in late 2013, and he described that improvement as the “standard we will apply to any agreement” with the Islamic Republic.
Officials have described the United States, Europe, Russia and China as considering a compromise that would see Iran’s nuclear activities severely curtailed for at least a decade, with restrictions and U.S. and Western economic penalties eased in the final years of a deal.
“We are going to test whether or not diplomacy can prevent this weapon from being created, so you don’t have to turn to additional measures including the possibility of a military confrontation,” Kerry told ABC’s “This Week.”
“Our hope is that diplomacy can work. And I believe, given our success of the interim agreement, we deserve the benefit of the doubt to find out whether or not we can get a similarly good agreement with respect to the future.”
Netanyahu will press his opposition to a diplomatic accommodation of Iran’s program in his speech Tuesday to Congress.
“We are not here to offend President Obama whom we respect very much,” said a Netanyahu adviser, who was not authorized to be identified. “The prime minister is here to warn, in front of any stage possible, the dangers” of the agreement that may be taking shape.
The adviser, who spoke shortly before the delegation touched down in Washington, said Israel was well aware of the details of the emerging nuclear deal and they included Western compromises that were dangerous for Israel. Still, he tried to lower tensions by saying that Israel “does not oppose every deal” and was merely doing its best to warn the U.S. of the risks entailed in the current one.
The invitation to speak to Congress extended by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Netanyahu’s acceptance have caused an uproar that has exposed tensions between Israel and the U.S., its most important ally.
By consenting to speak, Netanyahu angered the White House, which was not consulted in advance, and Democrats, who were forced to choose between showing support for Israel and backing the president.
“I will do everything in my ability to secure our future,” Netanyahu said before flying to Washington.
Boehner said Iran’s nuclear ambitions were a threat well beyond the region.
“We’re not going to resolve this issue by sticking our heads in the sand,” Boehner told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
He said Netanyahu “can talk about this threat, I believe, better than anyone. And the United States Congress wants to hear from him, and so do the American people.”
The congressional speech also has sparked criticism in Israel, where Netanyahu is seeking re-election on March 17. He also planned to speak Monday at the annual conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.
Netanyahu considers unacceptable any deal that does not entirely end Iran’s nuclear program. But President Barack Obama is willing to leave some nuclear activity intact, backed by safeguards that Iran is not trying to develop a weapon. Iran insists its program is solely for peaceful energy and medical research.
The dispute has become more personal of late.
Last week, Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, described the timing and partisan manner of Netanyahu’s visit as “destructive” for the U.S.-Israeli relationship.
On Sunday, Kerry painted a more positive picture of continued close cooperation. He said the U.S.-Israeli security partnership was closer than at any point before, and noted the large investment of American money in the Jewish state’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
He said the U.S. government has “intervened on Israel’s behalf in the last two years a couple of hundred” times in more than 75 forums “in order to protect Israel.”
Kerry plans to make precisely that point when he addresses the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday in Geneva.
U.S. officials have often accused the council of being biased against Israel and inappropriately focused on the Jewish state. Officials traveling with Kerry said he would urge the council to take a more balanced approach.
