House Speaker John Boehner called on Tea Party Republicans in the Senate to help pass a Homeland Security funding measure that puts the brakes on President Obama’s executive actions to curb deportations.
Boehner, speaking to reporters following a closed-door conference with GOP lawmakers, called on Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to take up the fight, saying it is up to the Senate GOP to pass a House bill that defunds Obama’s executive actions.
“It’s time for Sen. Cruz and Sen. Sessions and Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats to stand with the American people to block the president’s executive actions.”
Cruz and Sessions have been the staunchest opponents to Obama’s directives, which allow more than 5 million illegal immigrants to obtain work permits and some federal benefits. Both Cruz and Sessions have called on Congress to use its spending authority to block Obama from carrying out the executive actions.
In December, Cruz kept the Senate in a rare weekend session in order to force senators to take up a procedural measure that indirectly measured whether lawmakers believed the president’s executive actions were constitutional.
The weekend session, however, allowed the outgoing Democratic majority to confirm many judicial and executive branch nominations that otherwise would have languished.
Boehner’s decision to call out Cruz and Sessions by name hints at the tension between GOP leaders and the Tea Party conservative wing, who have been pressuring Republican leaders not to back down on legislation that defunds the immigration directives.
The House earlier this month passed a $40 billion measure to keep the DHS funded through the end of the fiscal year. It includes provisions that would block the Obama administration directives by stripping out funding.
The Senate will vote on the House bill Tuesday, but Democrats are expected to block the measure, putting pressure on GOP lawmakers to come up with new legislation or face a politically dangerous spending showdown with President Obama.
Boehner told reporters Tuesday there is no “plan B” just yet.
“The goal is not to let the DHS run out of money,” Boehner said. “Why don’t we wait until the Senate acts and then we can decide what the next steps are.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misidentified John Boehner’s position in the Republican leadership. The Washington Examiner regrets the error.
