News / Politics

Boehner plays down GOP rebellion over DHS funding

Sunday, 01 March 2015 6:35 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 01 March 2015 6:34 PM ]

House Speaker John Boehner (Mark Wilson/Getty)

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives John Boehner has played down a possible risk to his leadership on Sunday, saying that disagreements with fellow Republicans are over tactics and not goals.

His comments came after conservative Republicans derailed Boehner’s bill on Friday to keep the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funded. A bill that he submitted for three weeks of the Department’s funding failed to pass 203-224, with 52 Republicans voting against it. An emergency one-week bill to fund the agency passed 357-60 Friday night, with fifty-five Republicans voted against it as well.

Observers say Boehner's embarrassing defeat on Friday to garner enough votes to fund the DHS for three weeks has exposed his weakness to lead House Republicans.

He told the CBS’s “Face the Nation” program on Sunday that “We do have some members who disagree from time to time over the tactics that we decide to employ.”

Despite Boehner’s assurance, his close allies say some “conservatives Republicans within his own party could try to remove the Ohio representative as Speaker of the House as soon as next week,” according to Mail Online.

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Charlie Dent acknowledged to reporters he heard conservatives Republicans were using the DHS failure to try to remove Boehner, according to CNN.

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