WASHINGTON — US House conservatives lost big Tuesday when the chamber, in a rare bipartisan vote, sent a $39.7 billion Homeland Security funding bill to the president's desk.

The bill passed with mostly Democratic support, as only 75 House Republicans voted for the "clean" spending bill. The final tally was 257-167.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, informed his caucus on Tuesday morning that he would bring a "clean" full-year Homeland Security funding bill to a floor vote just four days after the far-right faction of his caucus blocked his attempts to pass a three-week stopgap bill on Friday.

The tea party wing of the GOP conference — which now operates under the "Freedom Caucus" moniker — wanted the Homeland Security funding bill to include riders that would defund President Barack Obama's recent immigration action.

The House in January passed a full-year DHS funding bill that contained those kinds of provisions, but several attempts to pass it through the Senate failed. The upper chamber late last week approved the same "clean" version that the House sent to Obama on Tuesday.

The move marks a big win for congressional Democrats, especially in the Senate. It also is a big loss for Republicans — all of whom oppose Obama's since-frozen decision to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation but differ on the tactics of blocking it.

The biggest political losers are Freedom Caucus members, who were deeply entrenched and led last Friday what was for Boehner an embarrassing floor rebellion that killed a three-week DHS funding measure.

"What we did say was, 'We don't want to fund something that everyone knows is unconstitutional, legal scholars on the right and the left have said is unconstitutional, and a federal judge, a federal judge has said is unlawful,' " Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the Freedom Caucus, said Sunday in defending the faction's actions last week while panning Obama's immigration action.

"We passed a bill at the levels that the Democrats wanted," he said Sunday on CNN. "Fund it at the levels the Democrats want, but don't do — don't do something that's unconstitutional."

Jordan and other House conservatives are trying to shift blame to Senate Democrats, who rejected a House GOP plan to enter a conference committee process to iron out differences in the chambers' full-year DHS bills.

"We're willing to sit down and try to work out the differences," Jordan said. "That's all the House has asked for. That's all what we conservatives wanted when we went to our leadership and presented, let's go to conference. Make sure we go to conference. And we will be for it."

As recently as Sunday morning, Jordan doubted the speaker would merely bring up the "clean" bill.

"I think we have to make the case, continue to make the case ... we're not going [to take] the bill up," he said. "We can't debate it, we can't amend it, we can't vote on it."

There was talk over the weekend that Freedom Caucus leaders, should Boehner drop the immigration fight as part of funding DHS, move to oust him as speaker.

"No. No, of course not," Jordan said. "I don't think that's going to happen."

The DHS-funding measure contains billions for defense sector-supplied Coast Guard hardware, like National Security Cutter ships, HC-130J aircraft acquisitions and maintenance, H-60 helicopter re-manufacturing, and other programs.

Under the kind of stopgap-funding measure that was enacted last Friday night, US defense firms are unable to enter into new contracts with DHS agencies like the Coast Guard.

And under a shutdown, things would be even more bleak.

"Unreliable funding jeopardizes aircraft, cutter and boat maintenance and operations," the Coast Guard said in a statement.
"Also in the event of a lapse in appropriations, nearly $1 billion in acquisition and maintenance contracts will continue to be deferred or otherwise disrupted — reducing the long-term operational availability and effectiveness of the Coast Guard," the service said. "These delays erode the security of our maritime borders."

email: jbennett@defensenews.com

Twitter: @bennettjohnt

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