House Republicans on Friday released legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security, the first step in a major move to roll back many of the unilateral steps President Barack Obama has taken to reduce deportations of people living in the U.S. illegally.

Homeland Security, which will run out of money Feb. 27, was excluded from last month's omnibus appropriations package after the White House announced an executive order protecting as many as 4 million people from involuntary deportation. Republicans opposed to the executive order -- they refer to it as amnesty -- hope to use the appropriations process as leverage to counteract it.



The $40 billion bill revealed this week would fund DHS through September, and includes direct responses to several of last year's biggest controversies. Following the widely criticized release of Guantanamo detainees in a prisoner exchange, the 2015 bill prohibits funds to be used for the same reason again. The U.S. Secret Service, which was beset with multiple scandals last year, gets extra funding this year to improve and enforce its employee standard of conduct.

“The funding in this bill is targeted to critical security and law enforcement efforts that keep our nation and people safe, and ensure the laws of the land are strongly enforced,” House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said in a statement.

Noticeably absent from the base bill, however, was expected language blocking funding to Obama's various immigration actions. Instead, that language is expected to be added as an amendment early next week ahead of a floor vote on the whole bill Wednesday.



Republicans, who met Friday morning at the Capitol to hash out the details of the bill, indicated many of the added provisions would look similar to a bill introduced this week by Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., which blocks funding not just to last fall's immigration order, but a 2012 policy that exempted qualified young people from deportation and allowed them to get work permits. It also targets several 2011 memos that defined the priorities for who should be prioritized for deportation and cuts their funding as well.