--- title: Republicans Point Fingers as Congress Approaches Funding Deadline description: Congress is barreling towards a crucial end-of-the-month deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security without a plan. canonical: https://time.com/3703739/mcconnell-boehner-homeland-security/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-10T21:54:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:18:34.866Z article:section: Politics og:title: Republicans Point Fingers as Homeland Security Deadline Approaches og:description: So far, no exit from immigration fight in sight. og:url: https://time.com/3703739/mcconnell-boehner-homeland-security/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefc88378306a145d/69877e8035ba6f81ebc06fcc/john-boehner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: John Boehner Holds Weekly Press Briefing At Capitol og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Republicans Point Fingers as Homeland Security Deadline Approaches twitter:description: So far, no exit from immigration fight in sight. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefc88378306a145d/69877e8035ba6f81ebc06fcc/john-boehner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Republicans Point Fingers as Congress Approaches Funding Deadline > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Feb 10, 2015 9:54 PM UTC  Speaker of the House John Boehner holds his weekly news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 5, 2015 in Washington, DC. Speaker of the House John Boehner holds his weekly news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 5, 2015 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Feb 10, 2015 9:54 PM UTC Congress is barreling towards a crucial end-of-the-month deadline without a plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Top Republicans on Capitol Hill are already blaming each other. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that the other chamber is now primarily responsible for finding a way forward. “I think it’d be pretty safe to say we’re stuck because of Democratic obstruction on the Senate side,” said McConnell, who put a House-passed bill up for a vote three times last week and failed due to a Democratic filibuster. “And the next step is obviously up to the House.” “The House has passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, and block the President’s unilateral executive action on immigration,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told [CQ Roll Call](http://blogs.rollcall.com/218/house-says-senate-says-gop-split-on-next-dhs-move/). “Now, the pressure is on Senate Democrats who claim to oppose the President’s action, but are filibustering a bill to stop it.” Last year, Congress agreed to extend funding for all aspects but DHS for a full fiscal year over Republican resentment that the agency would carry out Obama’s November executive actions on immigration. Removing those three million immigrants now protected from deportation could add an additional cost to the $40 billion bill of $20 billion to $25 billion, reports [Politico](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/immigration-debate-price-115050.html). Congress has until Feb. 27 before DHS runs out of funding, forcing as many as 30,000 government employees to go on furlough, according to Secretary [Jeh Johnson](http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/08/politics/jeh-johnson-dhs-funding/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3703739/mcconnell-boehner-homeland-security/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3703739/mcconnell-boehner-homeland-security/"},"headline":"Republicans Point Fingers as Congress Approaches Funding Deadline","datePublished":"2015-02-10T21:54:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:18:34.866Z","description":"Congress is barreling towards a crucial end-of-the-month deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security without a plan.","url":"https://time.com/3703739/mcconnell-boehner-homeland-security/","keywords":["Congress","Immigration","John Boehner","Homeland Security","Mitch McConnell"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefc88378306a145d/69877e8035ba6f81ebc06fcc/john-boehner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefc88378306a145d/69877e8035ba6f81ebc06fcc/john-boehner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"John Boehner Holds Weekly Press Briefing At Capitol","caption":"John Boehner Holds Weekly Press Briefing At Capitol","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3703739/mcconnell-boehner-homeland-security/","name":"Republicans Point Fingers as Congress Approaches Funding Deadline"}}]}] ```