Danger of Shutdown Recedes as GOP Leaders Reject Immigration Debate on Spending Bill

Washington Times

By Stephen Dinan

September 16, 2014

Danger of shutdown recedes as GOP leaders reject immigration debate on spending bill

The danger of another government shutdown receded dramatically Tuesday when the House voted to begin debating a stopgap spending bill that bypasses the thorny immigration debate, leaving a few Republicans steaming.

Instead of immigration, the big debate now will be on whether to approve President Obama’s request that Congress authorize him to train and equip Syrian rebels. House lawmakers begin that debate Tuesday afternoon, and are expected to give their OK on Wednesday, sending the bill over to the Senate for final approval.

Over the summer, some Republicans had insisted that Congress not approve any funding bill unless it also halted President Obama’s non-deportation policies, which the GOP lawmakers said had fed into the surge of illegal immigrant children and families coming across the border.

But the surge has receded, Mr. Obama put off more executive action on immigration until after the election, and the advance of Islamic State militants in Iraq has overshadowed the immigration debate — leaving most Republicans content with approving money to train rebels in Syria and leave Mr. Obama to fight the war as he sees fit.

Tuesday’s vote was to set the rules for floor debate, which officially excluded any chance of discussing immigration in the House. Only six Republicans voted against the debate rules.

Instead, most lawmakers said they wanted a show of support for Mr. Obama’s plans to combat the Islamic State, also known by the acronyms ISIL and ISIS.

“The president’s request is to train vetted Free Syrian Army types to fight ISIL in Syria, and I frankly, think the president’s request is a sound one,” House Speaker John A. Boehner said after meeting with fellow Republicans in the morning. “I think there’s a lot more that we need to be doing, but there’s no reason for us not to do what the president asked us to do.”

The $500 million to train and equip Syrian rebels will be attached to a bill that keeps the government open into fiscal year 2015, which begins Oct. 1.

Last year, the House GOP balked at passing a bill that continued to fund Mr. Obama’s health care law, leaving a stalemate with congressional Democrats. That left the government without any funding as of Oct. 1, 2013, which was the beginning of the current fiscal year.

Without funding, the government went into a partial shutdown for 17 days. It ended when House Republicans relented and allowed the government to be fully funded again, in exchange for promises of a future budget deal.

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