An emerging Republican plan to skirt a Democratic filibuster and fund an entire department without congressional appropriations would be the latest example of surrendering power to the White House.
Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis in early January. Using the complex budget process known as reconciliation to fund the entire Homeland Security Department, as Republicans are suggesting, would be a significant departure from traditional congressional practice.
With Congress in recess, much of the Homeland Security Department remains without money because of the impasse on Capitol Hill, even as airport security workers are to begin getting paid.