House Republican leaders, eager to dodge a government funding fight, have proposed a two-part spending plan that aims to block President Obama’s recent directive to stem deportations of illegal immigrants.
The plan would fence off spending for the Department of Homeland Security in a short-term bill that would expire at the end of March, when Republicans will hold the majorities in both the House and the Senate.
All other government spending legislation would be included in a measure that would last until the end of fiscal 2015.
The House would vote on a separate measure, authored by Ted Yoho, R-Fla., that would declare the president does not have the authority to implement his plan to halt deportations.
The move would give the GOP a chance to take on Obama’s directive in 2015 when they control both chambers, without any threat of a spending fight that might result in the closure of critical federal operations.
“It’s a starting point,” Yoho said after a closed-door meeting with rank and file Republicans Tuesday morning. “It doesn’t tie it with funding, it just stops what [Obama] is doing, so the government can operate.
Republican leaders have been searching for a way to pass full government spending legislation despite demands from their conservative faction that the measure defund Obama’s executive action to end deportations, which he announced on Nov. 20.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Tuesday after meeting with fellow Republican lawmakers that no decision has been made yet whether to use Yoho’s idea.
“We’re looking at a variety of options, both for right now and when Republicans control both Houses of the Congress next year,” Boehner said. “And we’ll continue to discuss with our members a number of options, in terms of how we will deal with this, in consultation, again, with the members.”
Yoho told the Washington Examiner he believes Boehner will ultimately employ his plan.
“They’ve fast-tracked this because they see it as a plausible way to stop the process,” Yoho said.
The majority of Republicans, say some GOP lawmakers, oppose a defunding move because of what happened in October 2013, when the party was largely blamed for a government shutdown that resulted from efforts to defund Obamacare. By November 2013, the GOP’s approval rating sunk to an all-time low.
“Some people mentioned it,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said of the defunding option as he exited the meeting. “But, we need to be very clear that we are not shutting down the federal government. Even if people believe they are in the right, saying defund everything now, we know how it’s going to play out. You have to be tactically smart.”
If Boehner employes Yoho’s measure, he’ll likely lose Republican support. But full GOP backing is not critical, since Democrats are likely to vote for the measures because they do not defund anything and will pay for most government spending for the remainder of the year through an “omnibus” measure.
“If they do an omnibus for the overwhelming majority of the government, we may well support that,” Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told the Examiner.
If the Republican leadership elects the Yoho route, they’ll be bucking their conservative right, which has been calling for a range of actions to take against Obama’s deportation directive, including impeachment.
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said the GOP’s plan is a political move that won’t satisfy his constituents.
“People are tired of politics in Washington,” Jones told the Examiner. “They want policy. And if policy means you follow the constitution, then so be it.”
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said he won’t vote for Yoho’s plan.
Republicans, he said, are too eager to shy away from a shutdown fight.
“I think what we did in October 2013 helped us in the long run,” Barton said. “One of the reasons we won in November 2015 is because we showed the American people we would stand on principal. They voted for us to make a change.”
