Can GOP beat Obama on illegals but not beat themselves?
By Susan Ferrechio
WASHINGTON D.C. (Texas Insider Report) Congressional Republicans
must decide this week how to respond legislatively to President Obamas directive to curb deportations and
provide work permits and Social Security cards to more than 4 million people living here illegally.
Sen. Ted Cruz one of the staunchest opponents to Obamas
move to stem deportations said Republicans must
block Obamas Cabinet and judicial nominees for the next two years unless the president reverses the directive.
We should use the constitutional checks and balances we have to rein in the abuse of the executive" the Texas Republican said on Fox News Sunday."
As lawmakers returned to Washington earlier this week from Thanksgiving recess they will face pressure from their most conservative flank to take the fight over Obamas executive action to the government funding process which many believe is their sole source of leverage against the presidents move.
The internal GOP fight will intensify in coming days because a stopgap measure that has kept the federal government operating will expire Dec. 11.
We could write language that would say no funds appropriated in this legislation and no fees generated by any agency should be used to fund the presidents unconstitutional edict " Rep. Steve King R-Iowa told the Washington Examiner.
King and a sizable faction of conservative and Tea Party-backed Republicans want their leadership to ensure that any new spending bill Congress approves will cut money to carry out Obamas directive.
But GOP leaders in the House and the Senate where Republicans will take the majority in January are eager to show they can govern without gridlock.
In particular the GOP wants to shed its reputation as the shutdown party" a term coined by Democrats after the October 2013 fight over the fiscal 2014 spending bill that resulted in a 16-day closure of much of the federal government.
To have everything break down before they even get started in the majority would be a really bad sign" said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean a former top House and Senate GOP aide.
We are not going to put the country through the trauma of a budgetary shutdown or anything of that nature" Sen. Marco Rubio R-Fla. told the Examiner.
Added Sen. Tom Coburn R-Okla.: Theres no shutdown fight there isnt going to be a shutdown fight and no Republican has said that."
A poll taken late last year found the public blamed Republicans for the shutdown by a 22-point margin. The partys favorability rating sank to historic lows after the budget fight.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell R-Ky. has pledged that the GOPs response to Obamas immigration directive will come in January" but he has not signaled what kind of action his party plans to take.
In the meantime House Republicans will have to pass a spending measure and send it to the Senate which has a Democratic majority until the end of the year.
An aide to the House Appropriations Committee told the
Examiner that the House will likely take up a dozen separate spending bills beginning the week of Dec. 8 and they wont contain any provisions aimed at curbing Obamas executive action. The legislation would fund the government until October 2015 the end of the fiscal year.
Appropriators say they have no power to cut funding for Obamas executive action because much of it will be administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services whose budget is entirely fee-based.
To change the fee would take a change of the law" House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers R-Ky. told the
Examiner.
Conservatives arent buying that argument and believe GOP leaders are simply desperate to dodge a fight with Democrats.
We set the fees" Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) told the
Examiner. We can do that in an appropriations bill."
To placate their conservative base GOP leaders are also weighing a hybrid funding plan. The strategy involves taking up 11 long-term appropriations bills plus a separate short-term provision to fund the part of the government that deals with deportations.
That would allow Republicans to have funding leverage in the new Congress when their party controls both the House and Senate.
No decisions have been made according to a top GOP aide.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas the No. 2 Republican in the Senate told the
Examiner that Republicans are examining options for using the power of the purse" to rein in Obamas executive action even as they vow to steer clear of a shutdown fight.
Where theres a will theres a way" Cornyn said with a wink.
Susan Ferrechio is Chief Congressional Correspondent for the Washington Examiner. She is a frequent guest on PBS long-running public affairs program The McLaughlin Group and has previously reported for Congressional Quarterly and the Miami Herald.
