The Democratic-led House on Wednesday sent a supplemental bill back to the Republican-led Senate that will start another round of dueling press releases around ideological differences over driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants.

The House voted 54-11 to pass Senate Bill 15-161, which would provide about $2.5 million in supplemental funding for the rest of the fiscal year to the Department of Revenue. That funding includes $166,000 for the Division of Motor Vehicles to fund 4.5 full-time employees to help with the backlog of applications for the driver’s licenses, which were established by the Legislature in 2013.

The impasse started with the Joint Budget Committee last month, when members could not come to an agreement on that funding. The committee took several votes on the request for the motor vehicle portion of the supplemental over the course of several days, the last on January 22. JBC staff analyst Scott Thompson told the committee that funding for the temporary staff provided for under the 2014-15 budget runs out in February, leaving about 15 or 16 appointments per day that can be fulfilled. The backlog, which runs into next year, is estimated at about 150,000 requests, and it will be a year before those appointments can be made. The JBC tied 3-3 on its votes for that funding, eventually deciding to leave it out and send the bill to the Senate.

The $166,000 for the immigrant driver’s license program — cash funds collected from those who apply for the driver’s licenses — is already in the bank.

When SB 161 got to the House floor Tuesday, Democrats added an amendment to put the $166,000 back into the supplemental.

That drew strong criticism from House Republicans, but when it came to the final vote on Wednesday, they decided they did not want to endanger other funding in the bill, most notably, nearly $2 million for the department to process tax returns and refunds.

House Minority Leader Rep. Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland, urged his caucus to vote for the bill.

“You will see thousands of Coloradoans who will not get their tax returns back” if the bill is not passed, Delgrosso said. “There are things in the bill that are important to the people of Colorado.”

House Speaker Pro Tem, Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, told his House colleagues that the department did not ask for enough money for the program when the original law, SB 13-251, was passed two years ago. He said the original bill sought funding for 13 temporary employees for only nine months. Clearly the demand has outgrown those estimates, Pabon said. But he explained the department requested much more at the time, and knew the demand would be much higher. But, according to Pabon, the legislative services staff told the department that if their higher projections turned out to be accurate, the department should go back to the Legislature and ask for more money during the supplemental process.

SB 161 now goes back to the Senate for consideration of the House amendments. The bill could go to a conference committee, which would put it right back in the hands of the tied JBC, or, as with a previous supplemental, the Senate could adhere to its version of the bill, forcing the House to decide whether to stick to its position on the amendment.

The split chambers are now engaged in two stand-offs over two supplementals.

The Senate, at the behest of Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, who chairs the JBC, adhered last week to its position on SB 159 for the Department of Public Safety. At issue, just as in SB 161, are cash funds that have already been collected, in this case funds for background checks along with fees for handgun transfers. The House is scheduled to take up SB 159 on Monday, when it will decide whether to adhere to its position, effectively killing the bill, or to back off, allowing the bill to pass without the background check funding and perhaps try a separate bill on the issue later in the session, although its chances of passage through the Senate are remote.

So who blinks first?

Floyd Ciruli of Ciruli Associates says the supplemental issue parallels what’s going on in Washington, D.C., with the Department of Homeland Security. Senate Democrats on Wednesday announced they would support a “clean bill” that would fund the agency without any prohibitions on President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, avoiding a shutdown of the agency that had been scheduled for Friday.

“It’s a relatively modest issue embedded in a bigger appropriation,” Ciruli told The Colorado Statesman, but the modest issue has an important constituency opposed to the president’s executive action.

In Colorado, editorial pages have urged lawmakers to stop holding up funding for the Division of Motor Vehicles, but Ciruli said he isn’t sure there’s a consequence for inaction, at least until legislative deadlines force the issue or a compromise is reached.

“I haven’t seen the blame as passionate as it is in Washington,” he added. Ciruli noted that the original bill establishing the driver’s license program was not as controversial in 2013 as it is now. The issue made its way into general public knowledge when more applicants than expected showed up to get the licenses and there weren’t enough state employees to process them. “That played into Republican fears,” he said.

As to the supplemental for the Department of Public Safety, Ciruli said the majority of the public is in favor of gun rights, but he believes people are comfortable with the rules currently on the books.

“They just don’t want more of them – just enforce the ones we have,” Ciruli said.

The question becomes just how much “punch” the Republicans can get out of denying the funding for the background checks. It plays well to their base, Ciruli said, and they’d love to reverse those 2013 laws but can’t. “This is their only alternative.”

— Marianne@coloradostatesman.com