Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has aligned himself with a conservative faction of House and Senate lawmakers who want to block Obama’s executive action on deportations through the government funding bill.
Gingrich, a Republican who served as speaker from 1995 to 1999, said in a series of tweets on Wednesday that Congress should avoid passing a spending bill that lasts until the end of fiscal 2015.
“Congress should only approve very short spending bill to set up fight in January on Obama unconstitutional power grab,” Gingrich tweeted. “He must be stopped now.”
Gingrich said on Twitter that Obama’s move to stop deportations is a step toward dictatorship.
“Our entire constitutional structure is at stake,” Gingrich, who ran for president in 2012, tweeted. “This new Obama power grab is the greatest threat to freedom since King George third.”
Gingrich echoed the sentiment felt by a conservative faction in the House and Senate, who are unhappy with a plan to fund most of the government through Sept. 30, 2015, and the Department of Homeland Security until March 30.
Some Republican lawmakers on Wednesday called for government funding to last only until the first week in January, when Congress is slated to convene and when Republicans will control both the House and Senate.
“In my view, I think the shorter, the better,” Rep. John Fleming, R-La., said Wednesday.
Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah, and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, all Republicans, are among the senators calling for the Congress to use its spending authority to try to block Obama’s directive. Dozens of House Republicans side with them.
The opposition to the long-term spending plan may force the GOP leadership to make changes to appease its conservative faction, or else rely on Democrats to pass the measure.
Many Republicans believe Obama exceeded his legal authority with the directive, which will spare deportation for approximately five million people now living here illegally and allow them to obtain work permits and eventually Social Security and Medicare.
But GOP leaders want to avoid a funding fight that could lead to a government shutdown that the public would likely blame on the Republicans.
Gingrich is all too familiar with shutdown fights.
His standoff with then-President Clinton over federal funding led to a 27-day government closure in 1995 and 1996 that damaged Republicans in the polls.
