WASHINGTON: US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner urged fellow Republicans yesterday to pass a spending bill that funds most of the federal government through September 30, 2015, avoiding a shutdown fight over President Barack Obama’s immigration action.
At a closed meeting of House Republicans to plot strategy on how to handle a must-pass government spending bill, Boehner proposed including a short-term extension for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency that will implement Obama’s immigration order, Republicans said.
That would allow Republicans to revisit efforts to block Obama’s immigration action by placing spending restrictions on DHS activities early next year.
Congress must pass a federal government spending bill by December 11 to avoid a shutdown. Some Republicans want to use the spending bill to defund Obama’s unilateral action easing the threat of deportation for millions of undocumented residents.
The political stakes are high for Republicans. After huge wins in November 4 elections that will give them a majority in the Senate and a bigger majority in the House next year, Boehner and other Republican leaders want to demonstrate that they can govern and avoid a shutdown fight.
Boehner said after the meeting that no decision had been made and consultations would continue with Republicans in the House and Senate.
“I think they understand that it’s going to be difficult to take meaningful action as long as we’ve got Democratic control of the Senate,” Boehner said.
“Frankly, we have limited options, limited ability to deal with it directly,” he said of possible responses to Obama’s immigration action.
Representative Peter Roskam of Illinois said Boehner’s proposal was well received, and he did not think the conservative effort to delete funding for immigration in the must-pass bill would get much traction.
“No one spoke in favour of a shutdown,” Representative Peter King of New York told reporters.
Opinions vary widely in Boehner’s Republican caucus, and he may have difficulty persuading conservatives who are demanding an immediate retaliatory vote against Obama’s order.
“I just want to make sure that we do our job and that is to make sure no funds can be spent for this illegal action,” said Representative Matt Salmon, a conservative from Arizona who is pushing for a full-year spending bill with language explicitly blocking the use of any funds to pay for Obama’s immigration order.
REUTERS
