House Republicans expect to pass a short-term spending bill in December to prevent a government shutdown but maintain leverage to confront President Obama’s expected executive order to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants.
This stopgap measure could take two forms, depending on the scope of an executive order. It could fully fund the government at current levels, including the Department of Homeland Security that oversees immigration, and run through February or March. Or it could provide for a short-term continuing resolution for DHS while fully funding the rest of the government through the remainder of fiscal 2015. The latter option is favored by Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., the likely next chairman of the House Budget Committee.
Republicans haven’t figured out their next move, partly because Obama has yet to act. But having expanded their House majority and won a 53-seat Senate majority in the midterm elections — possibly 54 seats after a December runoff in Louisiana — Republicans believe they would be on better political footing to counter Obama’s executive order after they assume control of the full Congress in January. One option not under consideration by most congressional Republicans: a government shutdown.
“We are headed for a CR,” one House Republican told the Washington Examiner. House Republicans were meeting Tuesday morning on Capitol Hill for their weekly caucus gathering, where the subject was expected to be discussed.
Sources who attended the meeting said House GOP leaders spent the balance of the session in listening mode, and didn’t make any specific recommendations regarding strategy. Members were vocal about the need to respond to Obama, but just as adamant about avoiding the political pitfall of a government shutdown or similarly untenable political approach.
Among the options under consideration are passing an omnibus to cover the rest of the fiscal year, and then pursuing a process in which congressional Republicans would attempt to pass spending “recision” bills that took away the money Obama needs to finance any executive order on immigration that he goes forward with and package them with other must-pass legislation. That idea was floated by House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., during Tuesday’s meeting. However, Obama would be free to veto them.
House Speaker John Boehner declined to elaborate on internal deliberations during a press conference held following the meeting. “There are a lot of options that we’re considering. We’re talking to our members. When we have something to announce, we’ll let you know,” the Ohio Republican said.
Senate Republicans, in the minority for the remainder of the year, have been pushing for a long-term omnibus. They hope to fight Obama’s executive order after taking control of the Senate floor, when they will have more legislative options at their disposal and, they believe, more political leverage to win the argument with voters.
Incoming Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, did not rule out using the spending process to try to roll back Obama’s executive action on immigration next year. Senate Republicans also are exploring ways outside the spending process to blunt the president’s plan to unilaterally legalize up to six million illegal immigrants. But in terms of the post-election lame-duck period, Senate Republicans no longer expect House Republicans to send their chamber an omnibus that runs through Sept. 30.
“The concern is, basically, funding the government through the end of the fiscal year and giving [Obama] all of the money he needs to do all the mischief he wants to do,” Cornyn said. “I think we have to use every tool available to us to get the president to comply with the law.”
Approving an omnibus to fund the government through the remainder of the fiscal year is still the first choice of congressional Republican leaders and a broad cross-section of the rank and file. Rogers is continuing to craft the bill on the off chance that Obama backs down from his promise to move forward with what Republicans refer to as “executive amnesty.”
As a practical matter, using the lame-duck period to fund the government for the next nine months and pass a series of tax policy extensions would allow the Republican Congress that will be seated in January more time on the 2015 legislative calendar to push conservative reforms affecting spending, taxes, entitlements and healthcare that have been stymied by the Democratic Senate.
But Obama’s executive order, originally planned for before the midterm elections but delayed at the behest of concerned Senate Democrats, has altered the political calculus for what is both possible and preferable.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said repeatedly that the new Republican Congress will not shut down the government. Last year’s shutdown, an attempt to derail Obamacare through the funding process, is recognized by many as a political disaster — though one that Democrats were unable to capitalize on because of the disastrous rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s website and the president’s broken promise about Americans being able to keep their doctors and their insurance plans.
And because House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is very publicly in favor of comprehensive immigration reform anyway, some conservative opponents of legalizing undocumented immigrants even through an act of Congress have speculated that Boehner would push through an omnibus with mostly Democratic votes in the House to clear the decks for next year and as insurance against another government shutdown.
But Republicans familiar Boehner’s thinking say the speaker believes this would be a horrible note on which to begin the 114th Congress. Overriding the concerns of his conference on an issue as explosive as immigration could divide his members and leave them permanently at odds with each other, derailing their ability to work with the GOP Senate majority in a unified way to pass conservative policy priorities. There’s also the matter of the official floor vote for speaker.
Boehner’s Republican colleagues voted last week to grant him another term as speaker. But it’s not official until the new House is seated and 218 members vote for him to keep the gavel. Boehner, Republicans say, might be willing to spend his political capital on a good substantive outcome — but not to achieve a tactical win, like passing an omnibus versus a short-term continuing resolution budget bill. However, some Republicans are holding out for the possibility that passing an omnibus to fund the remainder of fiscal 2015 is still possible as part of a broader strategy to counter whatever Obama does on immigration.
“Just because we’ve passed an omnibus budget, doesn’t mean we’ve lost power over that budget,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said. “Once it’s passed it can still be revised and modified.”
