House rejects immigration move 219-197
Fight over spending looms
WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to block President Barack Obama’s immigration orders in a symbolic move meant to clear the way for action next week to fund the U.S. government and avoid a shutdown.
The 219-197 vote allowed Republicans to vent their frustration over Obama’s decision to ease deportation rules for millions of illegal aliens without holding up a spending bill. Some Republicans wanted to attach the immigration language to a government spending measure, which would have led to a standoff with Democrats.
Reps. Tom Cotton, Steve Womack and Tim Griffin of Arkansas supported the measure. Rep. Rick Crawford was not in town to vote because of a family emergency.
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 as well as parents of children who are citizens or legal permanent residents.
“The American people were crystal clear about their dislike” of Obama’s action on immigration, third-ranking House Republican Steve
Scalise of Louisiana said during Thursday’s floor debate. “This legislation says ‘You can’t do that, Mr. President. There’s a rule of law.’”
Current government funding ends next Thursday. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said Thursday that he and his Senate counterpart, Democrat Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, plan today to “sign off on the final deal” to fund most of the government through September 2015.
A previously skeptical Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, signaled that the funding bill is likely to get her members’ support if House Speaker John Boehner entertains some Democratic demands.
“Let us supply the votes to keep government open, but we can’t do that unless we have a bill worthy of our support,” Pelosi of California said Thursday.
Still, many Democrats spoke against the measure blocking Obama’s immigration actions Thursday.
“Prior presidents were not met with such obstructionism,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who has negotiated with Republicans on immigration legislation. “He cannot change the law and he has not done so. He does have the authority to grant temporary relief to some.”
Boehner and his lieutenants in the House devised the two-step strategy to keep the dispute over immigration from causing a repeat of the 16day partial government shutdown in October 2013, which stemmed from a Republican bid to use spending legislation to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The Senate doesn’t plan to take up Thursday’s immigration bill, and the Obama administration said the president would veto the measure if it reached his desk, making it a symbolic move.
The second step of the Republican plan requires both chambers to pass a separate measure funding almost all of the federal government for the fiscal year that began in October. Since Oct. 1, the government has been operating on short-term funding scheduled to run out next week.
Under the measure announced earlier this week, 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.
Republicans won control of the Senate and increased their House majority in November’s election.
“We think this is the most practical way to fight the president’s actions,” Boehner said Thursday.
In a concession to some conservatives, House leaders said Thursday that they are considering a revision that would move up a fight over immigration funding to soon after Congress reconvenes in January instead of in March.
Some opponents of Boehner’s approach want funding for immigration-related agencies to expire in January so the new Republican-led Congress can defund parts of the agency tasked with carrying out Obama’s orders. Boehner may agree to move the date to February, according to a Republican aide who sought anonymity to describe the private talks.
“There are three or four general arrows that are being talked about. Leadership, to their credit, is listening,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas.
Some Democrats were not happy with the Republican approach.
In addition to their displeasure of the immigration measure passed Thursday, Democrats want to cut from the spending bill at least 70 Republican-sponsored provisions that would poke holes in Obama’s policies on the environment, health care and other matters, said Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va.
“We are like Amtrak,” Mikulski said Thursday. “We’ve left the station, we’re headed to our destination and we will have some stops along the way.”
In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he would be open to Boehner’s approach if Republican leaders could gather enough House votes to advance it.
Still, some more conservative Republicans in Congress favor an immediate fight over Obama’s immigration orders by holding up funding for immigration-related agencies starting next week.
“The entire constitutional structure is at stake,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who opposes the funding measure. “I don’t think it’s dawned on people” and “I don’t think we should be timid about it.”
At a news conference Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said passing a symbolic bill against the deportation orders would be a “meaningless show vote.”
Cruz, a member of the Tea Party movement who led the drive for the 2013 shutdown, said Congress should pass a short-term spending bill that blocks Obama’s immigration orders through funding for the Homeland Security and Justice departments.
Cruz also said the Senate should block confirmations for all non-national security presidential appointments.
Former Senate Republican leader Trent Lott on Thursday urged today’s GOP leaders to co-opt staunchly conservative freshmen if possible and to marginalize the rest in order to ease congressional gridlock.
Lott, speaking at a Washington breakfast organized by the Christian Science Monitor, said Republican House and Senate leaders should immediately embrace new members before they can drift toward the right flank dominated by Tea Party members.
He also said leaders must be forceful in keeping such conservative hard-liners from triggering another government shutdown. Lott, who is from Mississippi and was GOP leader a decade ago, called the 2013 shutdown foolish and disingenuous.