House to Return Friday to Work on Border Security Bill

The House of Representatives will return for an unexpected workday on Friday to deal with pending border security legislation.

The surprise work period extension comes after House Republican leaders cancelled a final vote on a emergency funding supplemental bill, one that would have provided $659 million to address the tide of unaccompanied immigrant children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border seeking refuge from violence in Central America. Members

House rank-and-file lawmakers earlier Thursday approved a rule governing debate on the underlying bill, but a vote scheduled for early afternoon was postponed, and later cancelled following debate. In a statement issued after debate, House GOP leaders said they worried President Obama wouldn't enforce legal changes mandated in the legislation.

The bill would have provided far lower than the $3.7 billion President Obama sought to deal with the border, and it doesn't include money for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system or to fight western U.S. wildfires included in a Senate bill introduced by Senate Appropriations Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and debated by Senators on Thursday.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said in a Thursday news conference that the House would not "accept it back from the Senate in any fashion."

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Republican-authored legal changes in the legislation weren't welcome at Thursday's White House press conference.