Bloomberg
By Heidi Przybyla
February 4, 2015
Senate
Republicans will try again to roll back President Barack Obama’s orders
easing immigrant deportations, in a bid to show party members they’re
making every effort
against united Democratic opposition.
The
Senate scheduled another procedural vote Wednesday on a bill Democrats
blocked a day earlier. Senator John Cornyn, in a floor speech, urged
Democrats including West
Virginia’s Joe Manchin to switch their votes and help advance the
legislation.
Republicans
are seeking to use a House-passed spending bill for the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security to force the president to abandon the immigration
action he announced
in November. Republicans control the Senate 54-46, and with 60 votes
required to advance legislation, they would need support from at least
six Democrats.
“We will not be bullied, we will not be told we have to negotiate.”
“The
president’s executive action is something previously a lot of Senate
Democrats have expressed discomfort with,” said Cornyn of Texas. He
identified Manchin and Missouri’s
Claire McCaskill by name and called on these Democrats to “stand up to
their own leadership.”
Obama
announced Nov. 20 that he would temporarily halt deportations for about
5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. The Homeland Security
bill would bar funds
to carry out that initiative and would reverse a 2012 directive shielding undocumented immigrants brought here as children.
There’s
little evidence that Republicans will find cracks in the Democrats’
united front on the immigration issue. Even if they did, Obama has said
he would veto any measure
that rolls back his policy.
Not ‘Bullied’
“We
will not be bullied, we will not be told we have to negotiate,” New
York Senator Charles Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat, said on the
floor after Cornyn spoke.
“The
right wing of the Republican Party is risking a Department of Homeland
Security shutdown to get their way on immigration,” said Schumer.
The
legislation, H.R. 240, would provide $39.7 billion to keep Homeland
Security operating through September. The agency would face a shutdown
of non-essential operations
if Congress doesn’t reach agreement before current funding ends Feb.
27.
Republicans’
decision to hold a second vote helps leaders demonstrate to Tea
Party-aligned lawmakers that they are exhausting every option to attack
Obama’s immigration
orders, Cornyn said. The House, led by Speaker John Boehner, passed the
bill on Jan. 14.
“The
speaker needs to get a majority of votes in the House, so I think part
of coming to a solution is going to be showing that we’re doing our best
to fight for the House
position,” he said.
Making Changes
Republicans will have to make changes to the measure if Democrats refuse to budge, Cornyn said.
“Either
the House would have to pass a different piece of legislation, which I
don’t believe they’re prepared to do at this time, or something would
have to be generated
here in the Senate,” he said.
In
similar funding battles over the past five years, Congress hasn’t
passed major legislation unless it is on the brink of a deadline. That
means there may be several
more unsuccessful attempts at passing a bill before a final deal is
reached before the end of this month.
Earlier on Tuesday, Boehner of Ohio declined to say what the next step would be, suggesting the issue may remain in the Senate.
One
potential change Republicans could make to gain support, Cornyn said,
is to drop their attack on the 2012 order, which protects undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.
Schumer
rejected the idea of passing a Homeland Security funding bill that
still would block Obama’s November immigration orders.
“That’s just changing the ransom,” Schumer said.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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