Potential DHS shutdown.

[WskyDK]

This wholly ineffective agency needs more money to remain ineffective.

DHS funding is still locked up in the senate due to Dems. filibustering additional language on immigration reform. Clearly DHS is such an important agency that house senate republicans are willing to attempt to pass it on its own. This political brinksmanship is getting old.

Some of the terror "attacks" are awesome! Blowtorch to the bridge is my favorite

DHS hasn't stopped shit

[Rukentuts]

I think we should complain about "terrorists" crossing the border then defund the department for border security.

[WskyDK]

I think we should complain about "terrorists" crossing the border then defund the department for border security.

There's not enough fear in that.
DHS is the guard on the wall, holding back the ever present threat of extremism from touching down in or native soil. Border patrol just keeps the illegals out.

[Stormdash]

There is a clean bill* waiting for passage in the Senate. There's nothing left to discuss here.

*"clean" surely includes bills whose sole prohibitions on spending are for unlawful programs currently barred from implementation by court order.

[WskyDK]

There is a clean bill* waiting for passage in the Senate. There's nothing left to discuss here.

*"clean" surely includes bills whose sole prohibitions on spending are for unlawful programs currently barred from implementation by court order.

Clearly, it's not "clean".
A clean bill on DHS funding contains verbiage for that sole purpose. Anything past that is just one side trying to push their agenda while claiming they're just trying to fund this oh so important department.

[lockedout]

Should just close it down for good.

[Stormdash]

Clearly, it's not "clean".
A clean bill on DHS funding contains verbiage for that sole purpose. Anything past that is just one side trying to push their agenda while claiming they're just trying to fund this oh so important department.

There is nothing the bill withhold funding from that lawfully deserves funding, so it's more than clean enough to the task.

In practical terms, we already know that even if the Democrats choose not to fund DHS, 85% or so of the agency remains funded just as it did under the 2013 "shutdown" (we should never refer to that in the federal government without quotations).

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Should just close it down for good.

It never should have been created in the first place, I wanted to tear my hair out when the Bush administration and Congress decided the answer to what was mostly a failure of government bureaucracy was to add more meta-bureaucracy.

[Rukentuts]

If they're so confident that the "amnesty" is "unlawful" why the demand for the "clean" bill? Oh right, the appeal is going to be heard by a more liberal court.

[WskyDK]

There is nothing the bill withhold funding from that lawfully deserves funding, so it's more than clean enough to the task.

In practical terms, we already know that even if the Democrats choose not to fund DHS, 85% or so of the agency remains funded just as it did under the 2013 "shutdown" (we should never refer to that in the federal government without quotations).

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It never should have been created in the first place, I wanted to tear my hair out when the Bush administration and Congress decided the answer to what was mostly a failure of government bureaucracy was to add more meta-bureaucracy.

Agreed on the creation of the agency. Do you have a link to the apparent clean funding bill? All I've been able to find is the version which contains the anti-immigration verbiage in question.

[Kanariya]

There's no reason for it to exist, let it shut down.

[Stormdash]

Agreed on the creation of the agency. Do you have a link to the apparent clean funding bill? All I've been able to find is the version which contains the anti-immigration verbiage in question.

The bill denies funding to a program currently barred by an injuction from a US District Court. If the money were authorized, it literally could not be used anyway right now. So the bill is as clean as it needs to be.

[Endus]

Should just close it down for good.

Y'know, it's really rare that we ever agree on, well, anything, but I agree here.

Ever since its creation, I haven't seen that the DHS really covered any significant need that wasn't already in the wheelhouse of another organization, like the CIA or FBI.

Break it up, apportion the necessary functions to other departments, relish the greater efficiency that results.

[Stormdash]

While we're at it, we can abolish the TSA as well. Regardless of the asinine formulation "you don't professionalize unless you federalize" (then Senate Maj. Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), most of what the TSA did was rehire the same employees from the private contractors, but with higher salaries and federal benefits. In return, we get a) regular tales of Americans being groped in the airport and b) regular tales of people still getting the darnedest things aboard planes, even stowaways on commercial flights.

[Rukentuts]

The bill denies funding to a program currently barred by an injuction from a US District Court. If the money were authorized, it literally could not be used anyway right now. So the bill is as clean as it needs to be.

Except we all know this injunction is temporary.

[Drsolders]

Y'know, it's really rare that we ever agree on, well, anything, but I agree here.

Ever since its creation, I haven't seen that the DHS really covered any significant need that wasn't already in the wheelhouse of another organization, like the CIA or FBI.

Break it up, apportion the necessary functions to other departments, relish the greater efficiency that results.

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(part) Agriculture U.S. Customs and Border Protection
CBRN Countermeasures Programs
Domestic Emergency Support Teams
Energy Security and Assurance Program
Environmental Measurements Laboratory
Federal Computer Incident Response Center
National Protection and Programs Directorate
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
Federal Protective Service
Immigration and Naturalization Service
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

National Biological Warfare
Defense Analysis Center
National Communications System
National Protection and Programs Directorate
National Domestic Preparedness Office
National Infrastructure Protection Center
Office of Infrastructure Protection
Nuclear Incident Response Team
Office for Domestic Preparedness
Plum Island Animal Disease Center
Strategic National Stockpile
National Disaster Medical System
Transportation Security Administration
U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. Customs Service Treasury
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Secret Service


IIRC it was created to consolidate those.It is better, and cheaper, to have them running as one department than to run many AND have to deal with them communicating.

[Stormdash]

Except we all know this injunction is temporary.

It's preliminary; barring a stay by the 5th Circuit (which would actually be pretty unlikely given the standard of review for such orders, which is abuse of discretion, defined in the link), the order will remain in place until the court hears and rules on the merits of the case. Given that one of the requirements for the grant of a preliminary injuction in the first place is the moving party's "likelihood of success on the merits" before that same judge in that same court, the district court would probably make it a permanent injunction, which in turn would usually stay in place pending subsequent appeals of the case on its merits back to the 5th Circuit or eventually the SCOTUS.

So barring a very bizarre ruling on the motion for a stay by the 5th Circuit, that injunction has a halfway decent chance of outliving the Obama Presidency.

[Vyxn]

Except we all know this injunction is temporary.

do you really want that court order to be over turned giving the president that kind of power to change a law to that existent and give a republican that same amount of power to do lets say make abortion illegal after 12 weeks?

[Wells]

do you really want that court order to be over turned giving the president that kind of power to change a law to that existent and give a republican that same amount of power to do lets say make abortion illegal after 12 weeks?

I mean I'd tell you that that's a shit show of a comparison.

I'd point out why.

But what's the point?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I mean I'd tell you that that's a shit show of a comparison.

I'd point out why.

But what's the point?

My head hurts trying to understand the comparison

[lockedout]

do you really want that court order to be over turned giving the president that kind of power to change a law to that existent and give a republican that same amount of power to do lets say make abortion illegal after 12 weeks?

I guess you don't know who your quoting. He would very much like that.