USA TODAY International Edition
Spending deal is only a short respite from strife
In a few weeks, lawmakers will be back at one another’s throats
WASHINGTON – If the three-day government shutdown looked messy, the next three weeks could bring a congressional maelstrom.
Monday’s breakthrough guaranteed two things, and only two things: that there will be another funding cliff on Feb. 8 and that the deeply contentious immigration debate will rage on.
The Senate passed a three-week spending bill Monday and sent it to the House for final approval, allowing the federal government to reopen Tuesday. Democrats agreed to support the bill after winning a commitment from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-
“It’s kind of a non-agreement. It just gets the government back up.”
Sarah Binder Political science professor, George Washington University
Ky., to bring up an immigration bill on Feb. 8 — or before then if there’s bipartisan consensus around a specific proposal.
“On the one hand, it’s kind of a non-agreement. It just gets the government back up,” said Sarah Binder, a political science professor at George Washington University.
But, Binder said, Democrats did get a little leverage and the promise of an upor-down Senate vote on legislation to protect “DREAMers,” the young immigrants who were brought to the USA illegally as children. That’s nothing to sneeze at, she said, given that Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House — and that President Trump was elected on a hard-line platform of curbing immigration.
Supporters of Monday’s deal said it was much more significant — an opening for lawmakers to come out of their partisan bunkers and work together on immigration and a thicket of spending decisions.
Monday’s breakthrough came after a bipartisan group of more than 20 senators met over the weekend and pressed McConnell to commit to a free-flowing debate on legislation granting legal status to the DREAMers and other immigration issues. The Trump administration announced in September that it would revoke temporary legal status and work permits granted to the DREAMers, ending an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
“For the first time in five years, we will have a debate on the floor of the Senate on the DREAM Act and immigration,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat. He said that has the potential to be transformative, allowing the Senate function again.
“What I have seen here … in the last few days is something we have not seen in years: constructive, bipartisan conversations and dialogue,” he said.
Now comes the “real test,” Durbin said, “as to whether we can get this done.”
Immigration is a polarizing debate, with hard-liners in both parties pushing lawmakers into the trenches. Democrats want to give immigrants who have long been here a path to citizenship; some Republicans support some type of protections but want to curb legal and illegal immigration as part of any deal; and other GOP lawmakers disparage any legal status as “amnesty.”
There is a growing consensus in the Senate for a compromise bill crafted by Durbin, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and four other lawmakers.
But even if that can clear the Senate, it would face stiff resistance in the Republican-controlled House, where conservative firebrands say they have assurances from Speaker Paul Ryan, RWis., that he will not take up any immigration bill that doesn’t have broad support within the GOP conference. No bill that passes the Senate with Democratic support is likely to meet that test.
Indeed, Ryan promised House conservatives last week that he would work to build support for a hard-line Republican-crafted immigration bill that already has been introduced.
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., who chairs the Republican Study Committee, a 150plus member caucus of House conservatives, told USA TODAY McConnell’s immigration promise would have little influence on the House. Walker conceded that the hard-line immigration bill introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and three others did not have enough GOP votes to pass the House, but he and others were still rounding up support.
Dan Holler, vice president of communications and government relations at the conservative advocacy group Heritage Action for America, warns that Republicans need to be careful of what kind of immigration deal they make.
“A sort of sweeping amnesty proposal demoralizes the Republican base,” Holler said. “It’s obviously bad policy, but it would also be pretty bad politics for Republicans as well.”
Beyond immigration, lawmakers still need to negotiate a broader budget agreement; Monday’s vote marked the fourth time Congress has passed a short-term spending bill because they cannot agree on a full-year government spending measure.