so that intervening cause is why all of a sudden the people of the united states said wait a minute. this is not following the constitution. this is not the way our government is supposed to run. . . it became quite a tidal wave of people who are very concerned about the action. in an effort to try to engage that fight, we came up with it.

we withheld the homeland security bill as the instrument to fight forward on. once again, i say it is a great bill but the decision was made and here we are. now, we passed this bill with amendments the actions of the executive. someone said once of that was the greatest delivered a body on earth. it may be, but this spring -- they have not deliberated. they have not taken action at all because each time the republican leadership in the senate set of -- siaid let's go have a discussion, go on the floor and have a debate and we will accept amendments.

let's have a debate. the democratic minority said no, we will not have a debate. four times they said no, they will not have a debate. republicans the not do what the democrats did when they ran the senate and just waived the rules of that thomas jefferson wrote. no, they follow the rules. there was no discussion in the greatest delivered of body on earth of this particular problem. now, are we funded now in our department? yes, we are. we have heard cries from the other side of -- you are leading this country in jeopardy because if we close it the department which i do not want to do, you put us at risk of terrorists. here are we.

we are saying let's not close the department but we sent it to them three weeks ago. the results of their work product over there. quite honestly, we have a dispute with them. what is the process? i know there are many in this body who have never even seen a conference committee. since 2006, this was not something we have done very regularly. quite honestly, the way we do this and resolve differences is go to a conference committee. what we are saying here is help us keep the government open for three weeks. the same three weeks they had and never go to work in the senate. let us have three weeks and go to conference like we are supposed to and see if we cannot work out the differences we have between the bodies. how unreasonable is this? by the way if you are worried

about the terrorist acts looming on the horizon you better vote to continue this government today or otherwise a no vote on this particular keeping the government open will shut the government and when the government closes, those terrible things will happen. you want that responsibility and let the government close and then face the facts that terrorists may be looming. let's pass this c.r. do it like were supposed to -- go to conference. work it out and see if we can resolve this issue an issue that was started by the executive branch. i yield back. >> the gentleman from kentucky. >> madam speaker, i am so privileged the search on the appropriations committee with

the gentleman from texas who did an excellent job of working in a bipartisan way completing homeland security bill that we thought would be part of the omnibus bill so the homeland security department would be funded for a year. this event was a manufactured event today and i do hope we can get past it and pass a homeland security bill for the next year immediately so we don't have even a small potential of shutting down the government. madam speaker, could you tell me how much time i have remaining? >> the gentlelady has 13 minutes. >> i am proud to yield two minutes to the distinguished leader, mr. hoyer. >> i think the gentlelady for yielding. i join her in thanking mr. carter and mr. rogers for

bringing to the floor in december a homeland security bill that was appropriate. that funded at the levels that were agreed upon by both parties. all we are asking is what we pass mr. carter and mr. rogers bill. the republicans pledged to not mingle controversial issues and allow each issue to stand on its own merits or demerits. that was their pledge to america in 2010. this action is inconsistent with that pledge. the senate has just voted of madam speaker 68-31 to pass the rogers-mikulski -- ranking member on the republican side of the senate -- shelby bill. this is not a partisan bill we are talking about. this is the bill we have agreed upon republicans and democrats,

and we cannot even pass that. with a knowledge that if we do not, the future funding of america's homeland security will still be in question. yes, we could do it for three weeks. i call it the cold a sec -- cul de sac strategy. going in there over and over again and feeling somehow the pathway will open. the senate is now voting on the collins amendment. as i understand the strategy of the republican party in the house, it is to add the bill that has been rejected of four times on the floor of the united states senate. it did not open up. they went twice, did not open up. three times, did not open up. now, the proposal was to go into that cul de sac a fifth time while we focus on whether or not

we are going to fund homeland security, not on the objectives of homeland security. ladies and gentlemen, i thank you for one additional minute. >> the gentleman has one additional minute. >> i urge republicans and democrats who have all said not funding the homeland security department now for the balance of the year is -- mr. rogers did not quote this -- it is ill-conceived and wrong. i therefore madam speaker, urge my colleagues to vote against this showed -- short-term c.r. and to vote for the senate bill that will be sent to us in just a short period of time, today which passed of the united states senate with over two thirds vote.

democrats only have 46 members. almost a majority of the republicans voted for it as well. madam speaker, that is the responsible thing to do. that is the right thing to do. that is the regular order to do. let's do it. let's put aside our partisan differences and are partisan strategies and vote as americans to fund the department of homeland security for the balance of the year and i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentlelady from new york reserves. the gentlelady from kentucky recognizes. the gentlelady from new york is recognized. >> i am pleased the yield two minutes to the distinguished member of the appropriations committee from california, mr. frost. >> the gentleman from california is recognized. >> thank you for yielding, madame ranking chair -- ranking member. i rise today to give apologies

to all of the employees of the homeland security administration. in watching this, i hope they understand what is really going on. this is not about the process the gamesmanship that we need time to work out. we don't go to the conference on a brink of a disaster. we have had year to deal with this. we pass to this bill but this is about a bigger game going on. it is about lockable -- whack-a-mole with the president. they sue him. they cut, squeeze and trim his appropriations. they hold up his government appointments. now, the real story shift we see is the republicans in this house even more than disliking the president, dislike the senate. the senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill

which we could have passed. we brought that builds of the floor to pass it. if we passed of that bill, we would not be here today. this would not even be a discussion. the irony is for all you homeland security employees -- the leadership with their details and all of the wonderful capitol police we have, they are taking care of because we don't pay for them out of the homeland security bill, we pay them out of our own legislative branch bill and that was passed. our security is fine, but the security of the rest of the nation is in jeopardy the senate just pass the bill to bring it to the floor. it takes the votes, 218, we've got at least all but 30 on this side. 30 republicans. mr. speaker, let your republicans go. let them come to the floor and vote on a clean bill. we could pass it before this afternoon. that bill would be in the white house tonight.

and we could go home sleeping, knowing that this nation's security is in good hands. stop playing games. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from kentucky is recognized. mr. rogers: i reserve the balance. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from new york is recognized. mrs. lowey: madam speaker i'm very pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from michigan. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you. i thank the ranking member for yielding. it's really important that the american people understand what's happening here. mr. kildee: it's pretty clear. the republican majority in the house and perhaps in the senate disagrees with the president on immigration policy. so they have two really clear choices. one would be to do what they somehow have been unable to do, despite promises of a prolific period of legislation in the first couple of months here in congress. despite that, seven weeks later we haven't seen anything that

looks like an immigration bill. so rather than using this magnificent process of democracy that the framers designed for us, to determine policy, the republicans in congress, really the republicans in the house have decided to threaten the shutdown of an essential government function national security, public safety, in order to extract concessions on policy that they are unwilling to submit to the legislative process. why not bring an immigration bill that determines for this country what our immigration policy ought to be? and in the meantime, fund the essential functions of government. to not do so there are consequences. this is not an academic exercise. there are consequences. three weeks of funding? seriously, three weeks?

after seven weeks of coming to the floor of the house in session, why couldn't we come up with this compromise with the senate with whom you share partisan majority, why can't we have a real debate on immigration policy on the floor of the house of representatives without having to threaten to close down the essential function of government? my friends on the other side have said, that's not what we're doing. . except that's what you are doing. words are cheap madam speaker, when you won't pass a clean bill to fund this department like your colleagues in the senate have done and continue to hold out to get something that -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. kildee: i think this is time for us to get back to the serious business of the american people and pass a clean bill to fund this essential function. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman's time has expired. the chair will receive a message. the messenger: mr. speaker, a message from the senate. the secretary: madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i have been directed by the senate to inform the house that the senate has passed with an amendment h.r. 240, making appropriations for the department of homeland security for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2015, and for other purposes, in which the concurrence of the house is requested. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kentucky is recognized. mr. rogers: madam speaker, there it is. that's the bill the senate finally passed. it's been six weeks, i said three weeks earlier, i'm corrected it's six weeks the house passed a funding bill for the homeland security department. six weeks ago. sent it to the senate purposefully early to give them plenty of time to consider and bring forwar