Rep. Boehner: House Has 'Done Its Job' On Homeland Security Funding

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House Speaker John Boehner told reporters Wednesday, "the House has done its job to fund the Department of Homeland Security and to stop the president's overreach on immigration. We're waiting for the Senate to do their job." Susan Walsh/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Susan Walsh/AP

House Speaker John Boehner told reporters Wednesday, "the House has done its job to fund the Department of Homeland Security and to stop the president's overreach on immigration. We're waiting for the Senate to do their job."

Susan Walsh/AP

House Speaker John Boehner had a message for the Senate today: The ball's in your court.

Speaking after a closed-door Republican conference meeting on Wednesday, Boehner repeatedly insisted that the House had done its job, and that the Senate must now act in order to stave off a shutdown for the Department of Homeland Security. The Department is slated to run out of money in just three days.

"I'm waiting for the Senate to act," Boehner told reporters. "The House has done its job to fund the Department of Homeland Security and to stop the president's overreach on immigration. We're waiting for the Senate to do their job."

Just a short while before Boehner spoke to reporters, he addressed members of his party and told them that he had not spoken to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in two weeks, according to several lawmakers who were in the room.

Asked about his conversations with McConnell, Boehner would not clarify, only saying that the two staffs had been "talking back and forth" but that "in the end, the Senate has got to act."

Boehner's comments come one day after McConnell indicated that he would bring a so-called "clean" DHS funding bill to the floor for a vote, along with a separate bill that would target President Obama's 2014 executive actions on immigration policy. But Boehner himself has not weighed in on the merits of the McConnell plan — only saying that Senate Democrats are impeding progress, and that the plan appeared to be a hard sell in the House.

Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks declared that "there's no way on God's green earth" he would vote for a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security unless it included language defunding Obama's executive actions on immigration. He went so far as to say that the so-called "clean" bill McConnell has said he'd agree to a vote on, wasn't actually clean.

"The Senate is not sending over a clean bill. A clean bill is a bill that protects the United States Constitution and stops illegal actions of the executive branch as reflected by two different federal court decisions," he said. "That is a clean bill. A dirty bill is one that protects illegal conduct."

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, who chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said that "no one wants a shutdown," but that "the plan, as far as I'm concerned is our bill."

"The question you've got to ask Democrats is, how can you insist on language in a bill that a federal judge says is unlawful? That makes absolutely no sense," he said.

Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon went so far as to say that Republicans weren't running the show in the Senate.

"The voters believe that in November Harry Reid was going to be dethroned and the Senate was going to be controlled by Republicans," Salmon told reporters. "Right now, Harry Reid's still running the Senate. That's a sad day."

In the Senate, Democratic leader Harry Reid said he would not support McConnell's plan without Boehner's guarantee that a clean DHS funding bill could pass the House.

"You know we have to make sure that people understand the bicameral nature of this Congress that we serve in," Reid said Tuesday. "So to have Sen. McConnell just pass the ball over to the House isn't going to do the trick. I'm waiting to hear from the Speaker."

If House and Senate lawmakers do not reach an agreement, tens of thousands of employees would be furloughed immediately. The rest, considered essential workers, would be expected to continue working without paychecks.

If the department shuts down, it would be for the second time in 18 months. The entire federal government shut down for 16 days in October 2013.

Police arrests three vehicle theft gang members

BEIRUT: Police have arrested three members of a gang that steals cars and motorcycles for resale in Syria, the Internal Security Forces announced Wednesday.

In a statement, the ISF said three Lebanese men identified as Z.T., R.N. and M.Q., all in their twenties, confessed to stealing many vehicles.

The arrests came after a local TV channel broadcasted a report Sunday about motorcycles stolen in the Nahr Ibrahim area in Metn district and resold in Syria through a Facebook page.

Police located the gang members and arrested them when they were riding two stolen motorcycles.

Earlier this month, motorist Khalil Saqtfoul had notified police that his BMW car was stolen in Tripoli.

Police subsequently arrested a suspect, identified as A. A. but known as “Hamido,” from the northern village of Masoudieh.

He remains incarcerated in Halba’s prison.

During the interrogations, the three gang members confessed to stealing vehicles and selling them to Hamido, who smuggled them into Syria.

The vehicles were stolen from many areas in Tripoli and other parts of north Lebanon, including Shekka and Batroun.

A 26-year-old Lebanese male accomplice, identified as A. H., remains on the run, the ISF added.

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Netanyahu's Talk 'Destructive' To U.S.-Israel Ties, Susan Rice Says

President Obama's national security adviser has said the invitation by House Speaker John Boehner to Israel's prime minister to address Congress – and Benjamin Netanyahu's acceptance of it – has "injected a degree of partisanship" that is "destructive to the fabric of the relationship" between Israel and the U.S.

Susan Rice's comments on PBS' Charlie Rose on Tuesday are the harshest remarks by a White House official over Netanyahu's March 3 speech to Congress on what he sees as the threat posed by Iran.

Netanyahu's speech is scheduled two weeks before elections in Israel, a reason cited by Obama for why he won't meet with the Israeli leader, who has said he is "determined to speak before Congress."

The speech will coincide with the final stretch of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over the Islamic republic's nuclear program. Israel views Iran as an existential threat. Many members of Congress want to impose further sanctions on Iran, a move that would likely doom the talks that are at a delicate stage.

Rice's comments came the same day Netanyahu declined an invitation to meet with Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., during his visit to Washington.

"Though I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to meet with Democratic Senators, I believe that doing so at this time could compound the misperception of partisanship regarding my upcoming visit," Netanyahu said in a letter to the two top Democrats.

Durbin responded, saying, "His refusal to meet is disappointing to those of us who have stood by Israel for decades."

The controversy began last month when Boehner invited Netanyahu to address Congress. The White House, which was not consulted about the invitation, called it a "departure from ... protocol." Boehner defended the decision, saying , "The Congress can make this decision on its own." (You can read more about how this is done at the House of Representatives' website.)

Obama, citing the proximity of the Israeli election, then said he won't meet with Netanyahu during the Israeli prime minister's visit to Washington. Earlier this month, during a joint appearance with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he reiterated those comments.

"We have a practice of not meeting with leaders right before their elections, two weeks before their elections," he said. "As much as I love Angela, if she was two weeks away from an election, she probably would not have received an invitation to the White House — and I suspect she wouldn't have asked for one."

Relations between Obama and Netanyahu are frosty, but both countries have been careful to say that the U.S.-Israeli relationship goes beyond any two individuals or political parties. But as columnist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in the Atlantic today:

"The Netanyahu camp is worried about the political impact of its preemptive strike on Capitol Hill, I'm told. Netanyahu understands that he will be burning his remaining bridges to the White House by going up to the Hill next week. Israelis close to Netanyahu have been warning him that his decision to openly align with the Republican Party against a Democratic president is both unprecedented and deeply risky."

Goldberg reported that Netanyahu's national security adviser was also against the timing of the speech, but Netanyahu's office denied that part of the story.

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