Conservative Republicans could challenge House Speaker John Boehner next week in a continued showdown over funding the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year.
They could make a motion to vacate the chair should Boehner put forth a "clean" bill to provide $39.7 billion to the agency without blocking President Barack Obama's amnesty orders,
CNN reports.
Two senior House GOP sources told CNN that they feared conservatives could take the step after Congress approved a one-week stopgap measure late Friday for the agency just hours before a partial shutdown would have occurred.
Obama immediately signed the legislation, which provides funding to DHS through Friday. The vote was 357-60.
The one-week measure came after 52 angry conservative and tea party-backed Republicans joined with Democrats to reject a bill Boehner put forth to extend Homeland Security's funding for three weeks.
The 224-203 vote proved to be a stinging rebuke to the speaker, who has represented Ohio in the House since 1991.
Boehner, 65,
won election to his third term as House leader in January — after a small group of conservatives voted against him.
The Senate quickly
passed the one-week bill on a voice vote after the negative House vote. Earlier Friday, the upper chamber backed a "clean" DHS funding bill that would keep the agency running through Sept. 30.
A separate measure to defund Obama's orders, which would grant deportation deferrals and work permits to as many as five million illegals, failed on a procedural vote.
Rep. Charlie Dent, a moderate GOP member from Pennsylvania, told CNN that he had heard about a possible challenge to Boehner by conservatives next week.
"Right now, we have to get serious," he said. "I think a lot of people better get serious about governing — and it's time for all of these, you know, D.C. games to end. All these palace coups or whatever the hell is going on around here has to end, and we have to get down to the business of governing."
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