The House Rules Committee advanced a measure Friday evening that would fund the entirety of the Homeland Security Department through May 22 â without setting up debate or a separate vote on the funding bill itself.
The panel, after a raucous meeting that devolved into shouting at multiple points, voted 8-4 on party lines to advance the measure to the floor.
The rule includes a âdeem and passâ provision, a tactic that allows legislation to be passed by the House automatically once the rule itself is adopted. While there will be one hour of floor debate and a vote on the rule, there will not be a standalone House vote on the DHS spending bill.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) described himself as needing âa neck braceâ from the whiplash of hearing Republicans argue for hours that the Senateâs early-morning voice vote on a different DHS funding measure was âshamefulâ for lack of transparency and accountability.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) accused the Senate of moving their bill “in the middle of the night, with the smell of jet fumes in the air,” lamenting that the House was left “to take it or leave it.”
House leaders, McGovern suggested, have chosen a similar path by fast-tracking the eight-week DHS stopgap.
âYouâre in charge,â he told Rules Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.). âYou can do whatever the hell you want to do.â