New York Times
By Ashley Parker
December 1, 2014
Washington
— Congressional Republicans returning to Washington on Monday find
themselves facing a treacherous 10 days as they try to balance their
desire to fight President Obama’s executive
action on immigration with the political imperative not to shut down
the government.
Congress
must pass a broad spending bill before Dec. 11 to prevent a government
shutdown. But Mr. Obama’s executive action last month, which could allow
up to five million people now in the
country illegally to live and work without threat of deportation, has
inflamed Republicans and complicated their calculation over what should
be a routine spending fight.
House
Republicans are reviewing a plan by Representative Tom Price of
Georgia, who is popular among more conservative members, that offers a
hybrid solution: a combination of a broad-based
spending bill that would keep the government funded through September
2015 and a stopgap spending measure to pay for operations of the
Department of Homeland Security, the agency with primary responsibility
for carrying out Mr. Obama’s immigration action.
That
plan, which is being called the “Cromnibus” for its combined elements
of a continuing resolution for the short-term portion and omnibus for
the broader-based spending, will be discussed
when House Republicans gather Tuesday morning in a closed-door meeting.
The
rationale behind the short-term measure is that Republicans could
revisit it early next year when they will control both chambers of
Congress and, they believe, have more leverage in negotiating
with Mr. Obama over immigration.
A
complicating factor, however, is that the primary agency responsible
for carrying out the president’s executive order is the United States
Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is
financed entirely through fees collected from immigration applications
and therefore cannot be defunded in the appropriations process.
Members
of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are still pushing for
a clean spending bill, which they plan to have ready by next week. But
Mr. Price, who is not a member of the
Appropriations Committee, could help rally reluctant Republicans behind
the legislation.
House
Republicans also are considering taking legal action, either adding an
immigration component to a lawsuit Speaker John A. Boehner filed last
month against the Obama administration over
the Affordable Care Act, or filing a new suit devoted to the
president’s executive action.
Some
of them are also talking about a separate bill to undo the executive
action — though unless Republicans attach it to a broader piece of
policy legislation Mr. Obama supports, Senate Democrats
are unlikely to bring it to the floor for a vote. And even if they do,
Mr. Obama is likely to veto it.
Republicans
have another avenue to try to force Mr. Obama to agreement: blocking
the president’s nominations. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of
Utah have already promised to subject
Loretta Lynch — the president’s choice to replace Eric H. Holder Jr. as
attorney general — to tough scrutiny over her views on the
constitutionality of Mr. Obama’s executive action. And the recent
resignation of Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense sets up
another tough nomination fight for Mr. Obama.
Jeh
C. Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, is one of the names the
White House is considering to replace Mr. Hagel. If Mr. Johnson — one
of the architects of Mr. Obama’s immigration
executive action — were to be nominated as secretary of defense,
Republicans could use the opportunity to mobilize against him,
especially as he has become the target for Republican criticism for what
they denounce as “executive amnesty.”
And,
if Mr. Johnson leaves the Department of Homeland Security, Republicans
would have another opportunity to pillory both the president’s
immigration policies and whoever his choice is to
replace Mr. Johnson.
Mr.
Boehner and his Republican leadership team, as well as Senator Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky, the incoming majority leader, have all been clear
both publicly and privately about their desire
to avoid a government shutdown at nearly all costs. The shutdown last
year, over Mr. Obama’s signature health care law, severely hurt the
Republican brand, and Republicans say they need to show the country that
they are capable of governing.
Nonetheless,
a handful of conservative Republicans are so incensed at Mr. Obama’s
immigration action that they refuse to take any option off the table,
including a shutdown, and have also
floated the idea of censuring or even impeaching the president.
Another
group of House Republicans, including Representative Mario Diaz-Balart
of Florida, are quietly continuing to work on their own step-by-step
immigration legislation. Their proposal
would most likely start with the border security measures favored by
all Republicans, but also address other issues within the immigration
system, including the illegal immigrants already in the country. No
legislation out of the House is likely to happen
until the new Congress.
Representative
Mick Mulvaney, Republican of South Carolina, said that Republicans were
constrained until next year by the Democratic-controlled Senate, and
that they were likely to ultimately
settle on some version of Mr. Price’s plan. But, he said, House
Republicans nonetheless need to send a strong public message that
conveys their anger and frustration with Mr. Obama’s unilateral action
on immigration.
“I
think it’s important that we do something, but we recognize that our
options are limited given the fact that the Senate wont turn over until
after January,” Mr. Mulvaney said. “Folks understand
we won’t fix it now, but they won’t understand if we don’t send a
message to the president that we don’t agree with what we did.”
On
Tuesday, as lawmakers move to coalesce around a plan, immigration will
be central to their work. Both the House Homeland Security Committee and
the House Judiciary Committee have scheduled
hearings on Mr. Obama’s executive action, with Mr. Johnson set to
testify before the Homeland Security Committee.
Democrats
are eager to keep the pressure on their Republican rivals. As news of
Mr. Price’s plan spread before the Thanksgiving break, House Democrats
were quick to label the option “a government
shutdown, partial or otherwise.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment