On March 3, the House approved, 257-167, the Senate-passed version of H.R. 240, a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The House approved an original version of the bill on January 14 that would have prohibited the implementation of President Obama’s executive order to expand immigration deportation deferrals (see The Source, 1/16/15). However, on February 27, the Senate amended the measure to strip the immigration-related language from the bill.
Although the Senate cleared the “clean” spending measure, several House Republicans rejected calls to pass the bill without the immigration provisions. With the February 27 shutdown deadline looming, and differences between the two chambers unresolved, Congress approved a one-week continuing resolution (H.R. 33) for DHS that was set to expire on March 6 (see The Source, 2/27/15).
The House passage of H.R. 240 extends funding for DHS through September 30. The president signed the bill into law on March 4.
