House GOP: We're Done Bailing Out The Senate

Frustrated House Republicans are through negotiating with themselves.

Majority Whip Steve Scalise joined Senate Republicans for a private lunch on Wednesday to deliver a friendly but blunt message: House Republicans aren’t working on a “Plan B” to fund the Department of Homeland Security and won’t consider another bill until the Senate acts.

After four years of curtailing their agenda to the whims of Sen. Harry Reid and watching a Democratic-controlled Senate bury hundreds of House-passed bills, they’ve had enough.

“Frankly, they were a do-nothing majority, and now they’re trying to be a do-nothing minority,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said in an interview with reporters.

House Republicans concede that the DHS funding package they passed in early January won't survive the Senate intact.

The legislation, while fully funding Homeland Security, would reverse President Obama’s executive order to legalize and grant work permits to 4.1 million illegal immigrants. Senate Democrats are sticking with Obama on immigration policy; even those who claim to oppose the president’s executive action on separation-of-powers grounds have voted to sustain their party’s filibuster of the House bill. Democrats are obstructing Senate Republicans from even bringing the House package to the floor for debate.

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