House Is Ready to Fire First Shot in Immigration Fight With Obama
By Carl Hulse, January 14, 2015, Source - The New York Times
Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, with other Republican leaders at a news conference on Tuesday. Jabin Botsford/The New York Times
January 14, 2015
Good Wednesday morning from Washington, where Republicans will seek to land the first blow in their immigration fight with President Obama, Speaker John A. Boehner gives the president a friendly lecture on his expectations, and a new study shows the steadily growing power of “super PACs.” Plus, we look in on the United States ambassador to France after the Paris unity rally and go inside the nascent presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The House is set to vote on Wednesday on a bill that would invalidate President Obama’s executive action on immigration, but the fight is just beginning.
Congressional leaders know the nearly $40 billion measure – which would pay for most Homeland Security operations, but not any immigration initiatives – cannot pass the Senate if it reverses the president’s move. And even if it could pass, Mr. Obama would veto it.
Congressional Republicans also know that they cannot afford to be held responsible for allowing money for the Department of Homeland Security to run out because of their outrage over immigration, particularly with the nation’s nerves on edge after the terrorist attacks in France. So the vote is just the first move in a politically charged chess match.
It provides an opportunity for Republicans to again register their opposition to Mr. Obama’s immigration policies even if they have to give ground later to make sure the nation’s border agency does not get caught in a financing squeeze.
“Our goal here is to fund the Department of Homeland Security,” Speaker John A. Boehner said. “And our second goal is to stop the president’s executive overreach.”
That’s a tacit admission that agency operations will take precedence over efforts to undermine immigration policy.