Todd to House GOP Leader: ‘Couldn’t You Have Been More Clever’ on DHS Bill?

Evan McMurryMar 1st, 2015, 12:13 pm

Meet the Press host Chuck Todd asked House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) Sunday morning whether the House GOP could have been a little savvier in crafting its funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security and avoided the “humiliating defeat” it suffered Friday night.

The House has refused to pass a “clean” DHS funding bill, instead attaching riders defunding President Barack Obama’s immigration orders, a bill unable to get through the Senate. However, Obama’s most recent and controversial order was put on hold by a judge, which appeared to render the immigration rider moot. Nonetheless the House GOP’s conservative caucus squelched a vote to pass a clean bill, narrowly avoiding a DHS shutdown Friday night and leaving itself in the lurch for next Friday.

“Couldn’t you guys have been more clever about this?” Todd asked. “You had the one decision in the federal court, we have a circuit court that’s gonna decide whether the president can start implementing it or wait until it’s fully resolved. Why not make the funding contingent on the lawsuit?”

“You’re giving a high bar,” McCarthy said. “There’s a different argument about fees and so forth,” he added, referring to the fact that Obama’s order is funded through fees, not appropriations, which ironically would have kept it operational in the event of a DHS shutdown.

Todd asked whether a “clean” bill could pass the House. “We have sent that bill back to the Senate,” McCarthy replied. “The Democrats had a motion to instruct, and it failed on the floor. So that answers the question right now. As of now, no it cannot.”

Watch the clip below, via NBC News:

[Image via screengrab]

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