By punting a solution over Homeland Security funding for a week, Republicans hoped the extra time would allow for further debate over President Obama’s contentious immigration actions.

But Democrats—who won’t even consider legislation that connects funding the agency through the fiscal year with attempts to repeal Obama’s executive actions—are blocking those conversations from occurring.

Today, House Speaker John Boehner is expected to relent and have his chamber vote on a “clean” yearlong Homeland Security funding bill that contains no conditions related to the president’s immigration actions—allowing them to stand.

The Senate already passed the bill, 68-31, last week.

Weeks ago, the House passed its own legislation that would tie Homeland Security funding to amendments that would undo Obama’s executive actions—including his recent move to defer deportation for up to 5 million illegal immigrants, and an earlier program that protects immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

For some House Republicans, who believe the appropriations process was never the place to fight Obama’s immigration measures, Boehner’s latest move is long overdue.

“We all know the outcome here,” said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., in an interview with The Daily Signal. “There’s simply no point to continuing this debate when we know what the outcome will be. The Homeland Security bill that passed the Senate on Friday [a “clean” full-year funding bill] will ultimately be adopted by the House.”

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. (Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. (Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Last Friday, hours before Homeland Security money was set to expire, the House passed legislation funding the agency for another week.

“There’s simply no point to continuing this debate when we know what the outcome will be,” says @RepCharlieDent.

The House hoped this week to have joint conversations with the Senate to reconcile their differences. A formal “conference committee” would have provided a venue for the House and Senate to work out their differences, but Senate Democrats rejected the House’s request to do so last night.

“When two chambers are in disagreement, the idea is you sit together in a conference, sit around a table, and work your differences out,” said Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., in an interview with The Daily Signal.

“This is how the two chambers for 200 years have settled their differences. The fact of matter is that all House members are asking for is for the Senate is to return to regular order, but [Senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid won’t allow his members to weigh in.”

Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wisc. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wisc. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Ribble expressed frustration that Reid, D-Nev., blocked multiple votes on the original House-passed bill from ever occurring.

“The thing that the American people find frustrating, no matter what side of the argument you’re on, is the frustration that everybody around here acts like children,” Ribble said. “And right now Harry Reid is acting like a 6-year-old child stomping his feet on the floor saying, ‘I’m not going to vote.’

He continued:

“Harry Reid knows full well the American people are on the side of the House. With his Democrats up for reelection next year, he hopes to prevent them having to vote on anything or taking any position on anything, so they can go home and say, I didn’t vote for that. But the reason you run for Congress is so that you can vote. It’s kind of embarrassing for Democrats that are fearful of actually voting and telling the American people what they believe.”

Though he opposes Reid’s tactics, Dent, like other Republicans who are expected to vote to fund Homeland Security for a year with no immigration attachments, believes Boehner is simply dealing in “reality.”

“My view is this: It was terrible that Senator Reid obstructed consideration of the House-passed bill until the day before the deadline,” Dent said.

“It’s also terrible that President Obama acted unilaterally in a way that I believe is unlawful—and was really trying to bait some of my colleagues into this kind of confrontation. With that said, we are where we are. There are not 60 votes in the Senate to go to a conference. There are not 60 votes to adopt the House language. Let’s stop engaging in this exercise of tactical malpractice and math denial and move forward.”

Meanwhile, even in the face of likely defeat, some House conservatives continue to fight on.

Reps. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, of the conservative House Freedom Caucus yesterday offered to House Republican leaders another option: extend Homeland Security funding for two weeks while the two chambers of Congress negotiate a long-term solution.

Yet to Boehner, the fight has gone on long enough.

He reportedly told Republicans today that the Senate had lost the immigration battle and keeping Homeland Security funding in doubt would threaten the nation’s safety.