John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said on Sunday he was willing to let funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapse as part of a Republican push to roll back President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration.

“Senate Democrats are the ones standing in the way. They’re the ones jeopardising funding,” Boehner told Fox News. Asked if he was prepared to let financing for the department lapse, he said: “Certainly. The House has acted. We’ve done our job.”

Boehner also said he did not consult the White House over his invitation to the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to speak to Congress because the Obama administration might have interfered with it.

With a 27 February deadline near for funding Homeland Security, more than 40 Senate Democrats have voted three times this month to block consideration of the homeland security appropriations bill, which has already been approved by the House.



House Republicans have written their version of the bill so that it also blocks Obama’s actions on immigration. Democrats want to fund the department but oppose House amendments that strip funding from executive orders made in 2012 and 2014. Those orders lift the threat of deportation for millions of illegal immigrants.

Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, told CBS on Sunday Congress should fund Homeland Security, and said that though Congress would keep getting paid whatever happened, vital employees at the border and airports – among other places – would have to work without pay while the funding dispute lingered.

Criticism also came from within Boehner’s own party. Arizona senator John McCain, a leading Republican voice on national security matters, told NBC of his alarm.

“The American people did not give us majority to have a fight between House and Senate Republicans,” McCain said, referring to Republicans taking control of both the House and Senate after November’s congressional elections.

“They want things done. You cannot cut funding from the Department of Homeland Security. We need to sit down and work this thing out.”

McDonough said: “Unfortunately, I don’t see exactly how Congress is going to resolve this.”

Boehner was sticking to his guns. “The House has acted to de-fund the department and to stop the president’s overreach when it comes to immigration and his executive orders,” he said. “And the Congress just can’t sit by and let the president defy the constitution and defy his own his oath of office.”

Obama has threatened to veto the House-passed measure. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said last week the Senate was “stuck” and that the next move was up to the House.

Boehner said Senate Democrats should be blamed if the department funding lapsed. Republicans control 54 seats – 60 votes are needed to clear procedural hurdles.

Netanyahu’s speech, meanwhile, which is set for 3 March, has caused controversy in the US and in Israel. Some Democrats plan to skip it because they consider it a divisive stunt, potentially aimed at sabotaging nuclear negotiations with Iran, and a breach of protocol that suggests the US is taking sides in coming Israeli elections.

Boehner was asked by Fox why he told Israel’s ambassador to the US not to mention the invitation to the White House in advance. He said he “wanted to make sure that there was no interference”.