Late Tuesday afternoon, the House of Representatives voted 257-167 to fund the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) through September 30, 2015, covering the remainder of the fiscal year. A clean funding bill was passed by the Senate on Friday, February 27th, in a 68-31 bipartisan vote. Senate Republican leadership had removed provisions opposed by Democrats that would have blocked President Barack Obama’s recent executive orders on immigration.
The House was initially not expected to pass this version of the bill, and despite today’s vote, will likely mount a different challenge to these executive orders.
Full funding of DHS means that all agencies, including US Citizenship and Immigration Services, will continue to function at full capacity through the end of September.
