Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Sunday said that Republicans cannot shut down the Department of Homeland Security over President Barack Obama’s executive actions.
The House in January passed a bill that would fund the department and overturn Obama’s actions deferring the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. If the Senate does not pass the House by Feb. 27, the Department of Homeland Security will shutdown, and the Senate may not act in time to keep the department open.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Chuck Todd asked McCain if the House Republicans’ approach was appropriate.
“I think it would be terrible. The American people didn’t give us a majority to have a fight between House and Senate Republicans. They want things done. We cannot cut funding from the Department of Homeland Security,” McCain said. “And there’s ways we can address what the President did was unconstitutional. But it’s not through shutting down the Department of Homeland Security. It’s too serious.”
Senate Republicans indicated last week that that the GOP does not have a strategy for funding DHS now that Democrats have blocked the House bill numerous times.
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) said on Wednesday that Republicans should not have tied DHS funding to Obama’s executive actions on immigration and need to now offer a clean bill funding the department.
Watch McCain’s “Meet the Press” interview via NBC:
