The U.S. Senate is gearing up for a fight over funding for the Department of Homeland Security and President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration.
The current funding expires February 27.
The House passed a bill earlier this month that funds the department but also un-does the president's action to allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the country.
Sen. Charles Schumer is calling on Congress to pass a clean bill and pass it quickly.
"In short, Mr. President, I'm perplexed as to why Republicans are playing this game of chicken with DHS funding," Schumer said. Because the only possible outcome that could come from withholding a clean DHS bill is a shutdown of several critical post-9/11 programs within the DHS, and the furlough of thousands of workers paramount to our nation's security and disaster preparedness."
The House version of the bill is unlikely to have Senate support.
Lawmakers say they will take up the DHS funding bill once it finishes work on the Keystone XL pipeline. That could happen as soon as next week.