Boehner: Plan avoids crisis, thwarts Obama
WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday presented a twostep plan to Republican lawmakers to try to curb President Barack Obama’s immigration orders while avoiding a government shutdown this month.
The House plans to vote this week on a version of a largely symbolic bill that would deny the president authority to protect illegal aliens in the U.S. from deportation, said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. A vote is expected as early as Thursday, a Republican leadership aide said.
Both chambers then would vote on a separate bill to fund almost all of the government through September 2015. But the Department of Homeland Security, with primary responsibility for immigration policy, would be funded only until March. At that point, Republicans will control both chambers of Congress, and they believe that they will have more leverage in negotiations with Obama.
“There’s no danger of shutdown,” said Rep. John
Fleming, R-La., saying he could support the proposal with changes in timing. He was among the Republicans who backed last year’s drive to defund the Affordable Care Act, a move that led to a 16day partial government shutdown in October 2013 and a drop in Republican public approval ratings.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the House approach is “something I’ll look at very closely.” It would be a “big accomplishment” to fund most of the government for the rest of the fiscal year.
The current fiscal year began Oct. 1, and the government has been operating on short-term funding scheduled to run out Dec. 11.
Reid said the Senate won’t vote on the measure to deny the president authority to protect illegal aliens. Bill sponsor Ted Yoho, R-Fla., said he realized that in that event his measure would be symbolic.
Obama announced Nov. 20 that he would temporarily halt deportations for about 5 million illegal aliens in the U.S. His directive will defer for three years the deportation of people who came to the U.S. as children and for parents of children who are citizens or legal permanent residents.
In addition, the Department of Homeland Security will streamline the visa process for foreign workers and their employers and give highskilled workers more flexible work authorization.
The Republican strategy to counter Obama’s orders is a test of Boehner’s ability to control the Tea Party wing after the November election. The tactic of using a government funding bill to challenge Obama’s orders, as some conservatives want, likely would fail in the Democratic-led Senate.
Even if it passed, Obama has said he would veto any legislation that would block his immigration orders.
“We have limited options and limited abilities” to act directly on Obama’s immigration orders, Boehner of Ohio said Tuesday. Lawmakers are considering “a variety of options” for action this month and also in January when Republicans will control both chambers of Congress, he said.
“I think they understand that it’s going to be difficult to take meaningful action as long as we have Democratic control in the Senate,” Boehner said.
The air of compromise contrasts with 2013, when at least 80 House Republicans signed a letter demanding to attach language defunding the president’s health care law to a government spending bill.
The latest proposal “is getting a good response,” said Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
“The mood is different,” Rogers said.
He said lawmakers learned in last month’s congressional election, in which Republicans gained seats in both chambers, that voters “want this place to operate, to get business done.”
Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., who opposes the two-part plan, said he had only about 10 allies in his drive to attach language blocking Obama’s immigration orders to a yearlong spending bill.
Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., among the most outspoken critics of Obama’s immigration orders, said he would consider voting for Boehner’s plan, though only after Salmon’s approach fails.
“After we have at least tried to do the right thing on behalf of struggling American families, then if we’re defeated in that effort, in order to avoid a government shutdown, I’m willing to consider the twostep approach,” Brooks said.
Some House Republicans were critical of the proposal, including Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho. He said Republicans would be “capitulating” if they didn’t insist on imposing limits on Obama’s immigration plan as part of a spending bill.
Majority Whip Steve Scalise said he had helped orchestrate the two-part plan after talking with Yoho.
“It came out of conversations with members, and Yoho was one of those who came forward with an idea,” Scalise, R-La., said.
After Republicans take control of the Senate in January, Congress could fight the immigration order using a Department of Homeland Security funding bill.
Fleming said he would back Boehner’s plan if it set Homeland Security funding to end Jan. 15, requiring the next Congress to address the issue right away.
Joe Barton of Texas said Congress should defund work permits allowed under Obama’s executive order and next year enact a plan offering limited legalization of illegal aliens.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has threatened to withhold Democratic votes for a partial spending measure. If the threat holds, Boehner would have to get a large majority of his members on board to pass it.
A House Republican aide, who sought anonymity to describe private talks, said some members also have proposed a court challenge to the immigration orders. They want to add it to a lawsuit the House filed against Obama last month over implementation of the health care law, the aide said.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Tuesday that Obama’s orders, which will be carried out through mandates to Cabinet agencies that deal with immigration, were well within the president’s authority.
Obama had waited for Congress to act and continues to want lawmakers to enact permanent changes in immigration law, he said.
“We’ve done a lot of waiting,” Johnson said. Obama’s action is necessary because undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. should be held accountable for taxes and other responsibilities, he told the House Homeland Security Committee.
“We want people to be accountable, come out of the shadows, get on the books and pay taxes,” Johnson said. “This is not a permanent solution.”
While Obama’s actions amount to the most significant changes to the nation’s immigration system in a generation, they don’t go as far as the legislation that passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote in June 2013 and stalled in the House.
The Senate bill would create a path to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens now in the country. Second-ranking House Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland and other members of his party have said they hope Obama’s move will force Congress into acting on legislation. Information for this article was contributed by Heidi Przybyla, Erik Wasson, Jonathan Allen, Kathleen Miller, Derek Wallbank and Angela Greiling Keane of Bloomberg News and by Ashley Parker and Jeremy W. Peters of