(Reuters) - The Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner, called on Democrats in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday to stop holding up legislation on funding the Department of Homeland Security.
"The House has done its job. Why don't you go ask the Senate Democrats when they are going to get off their ass and do something other than to vote no?" Boehner said at a news conference.
Last week, more than 40 Senate Democrats put up a procedural roadblock to a Republican-authored bill that would fund the department and also block President Barack Obama's immigration actions. Spending authority for the department, which is responsible for the security of the country's borders and domestic counterterrorism efforts, expires on Feb. 27.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
