PD Editorial: A hostage to dysfunctional House politics

From screening airline passengers and assisting earthquake victims to safeguarding the president and patrolling the border, the Department of Homeland Security shoulders vital responsibilities.

Most of its 240,000 employees will stay on the job if Congress misses a Friday deadline to provide funding for Homeland Security operations.

TSA screeners will X-ray suitcases and inspect shoes at the nation’s airports, Secret Service agents will shadow President Barack Obama, a Coast Guard crew will respond if a boat founders off the Sonoma Coast.

But they might not get paid on time.

As many as 30,000 of their colleagues, people who perform administrative duties, manage training programs and distribute federal grants to cities and counties, won’t get paid at all. They aren’t classified as essential employees, so they’ll be furloughed until Congress - as it inevitably will - passes an appropriations bill. Also, the E-Verify program that allows employers to determine whether prospective employees are in the country legally will be suspended if the funding bill isn’t passed.

These federal workers will become hostages in a futile demonstration of political pique by some of the most conservative Republicans in Congress (whose paychecks won’t be interrupted by a partial shutdown of the federal government).

They’re incensed at Obama’s immigration policy, and they’re threatening to cut off funding for the Department of Homeland Security unless he rescinds executive orders offering temporary protection from deportation to about 4 million illegal immigrants, most notably those who were brought here as children and have been raised in the United States and those whose children are U.S. citizens or legal residents.

There is a constitutional issue here. Obama’s critics, mostly Republicans, but also a few Democrats, believe the president overstepped his authority. Obama counters that he’s exercising prosecutorial discretion - deciding how to best deploy the resources of the federal government.

The courts are the proper forum to settle such disputes.

Indeed, a lawsuit filed on behalf of 26 states contends that the executive orders would create a costly burden for them, and a federal judge in Texas issued an injunction last week blocking the president’s orders pending further litigation.

That ruling was an obvious escape hatch for congressional Republicans - a chance to declare victory, pass the Homeland Security appropriation bill and avoid a shutdown of the agency created after 9/11 to protect Americans from terrorist attacks.

Yet, one day before the deadline, the funding bill is still tied up in Congress.

A reality check is in order.

Republicans do control both houses of Congress, but the majorities aren’t large enough to impose their will on the president. A funding bill that also overturns the president’s executive orders passed the House weeks ago, but it isn’t going to clear the Senate. Even if it did, Obama would veto the bill, and Republicans don’t have the votes to override.

On Wednesday, it appeared that the Senate was moving toward separate debates on the funding bill and the immigration order. But there wasn’t any commitment from the House to take up the funding bill if it’s approved by the Senate.

Standing pat is a lose-lose scenario for the House and Speaker John Boehner.

If the GOP is serious about proving that it can govern responsibly, it won’t persuade many people by cutting off funding for an anti-terrorism agency during the same week that al-Shabaab, a Somali terrorist group, called for attacks on American shopping malls.

It’s time to end the drama. Pass a funding bill and let the courts - and the Department of Homeland Security - do their jobs.