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By David Lawder. U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday said it was unclear if they could pass a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that blocks President Barack Obama’s immigration initiatives, raising an early stumbling block for the new Republican Congress.

Senate Republicans acknowledged that the measure, expected to win approval in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, may not get the 60 Senate votes needed to clear procedural hurdles erected by Democrats.

Republicans have a 54-46 Senate majority and would need to persuade some Democrats to vote against Obama’s executive action to lift the threat of deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants. The House measure is expected to ban money from being used to implement the order.

“If we can’t pass the House bill we’d have to come up with an idea of what could pass the Senate,” said John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate’s second-ranking Republican. (Read more about the GOP-controlled senate decision HERE)

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Obama’s Immigration Actions Raising Concerns

By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos. Nearly two months after President Obama announced his immigration executive actions, questions remain over whether the Department of Homeland Security can be ready to process millions of additional immigrants through an already-burdened system.

DHS is on a hiring spree as it sets an ambitious schedule – outlined in a recent memo from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the DHS agency in charge of processing the requests — for accepting new applicants.

The agency plans to begin accepting applications in late February under an expanded program for those who came to the U.S. illegally as children (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA). And the agency is looking to May to implement the biggest, and most controversial, plank of Obama’s plan – effectively legalizing potentially millions of parents of U.S. citizens and legal residents.

But the colossal effort, on a tight timetable, perhaps inevitably has some questioning whether they can pull it off. (Read more about the concerns on Obama’s immigration actions HERE)