The US Congress is a step closer to funding most of the US government through September next year with a plan that sidesteps Tea Party opposition and pushes the fight over immigration policy to the new Republican US Congress.
After Thursday’s symbolic House of Representatives vote to protest US President Barack Obama’s order easing deportation of undocumented immigrants, appropriations leaders in both parties were to work yesterday to complete a spending bill, with votes expected next week.
Democrats and Republicans said they would keep the government open after Dec. 11, when current funding expires.
House Speaker John Boehner devised the two-step strategy to keep Tea Party members from using the funding bill to vent their frustration over Obama’s executive orders.
The real battle over immigration will come next year, when Republicans also control the US Senate, Boehner said on Thursday.
“The House will work to keep the government open while keeping our leverage so that when we have reinforcements in the Senate, we’re in the strongest position to take additional actions to fight the president’s unilateral actions,” Boehner told reporters.
That strategy “gives us the best chance for success,” he said.
US House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, a Republican, said he and Senate counterpart Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat, planned yesterday to “sign off on the final deal” to finance the federal government.
Disagreements remain over a series of unrelated policy measures that Republicans want to attach and Democrats oppose.
Under Boehner’s plan, the US Department of Homeland Security, with primary responsibility for immigration policy, would be funded only into March next year.
That sets up a clash early next year, when he and incoming US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell will face more pressure from the expanded Republican majority to retaliate against Obama’s action.
The timing also would let Republicans try to advance border security and immigration measures, such as expanding visas for high-skilled workers.
“The smart thing for Republicans to do next year is to pass a strong border security bill, coupled with pro-reform initiatives that address issues like high-tech visas, and challenge Democrats to oppose it,” Republican strategist Brian Walsh said, adding that Republicans “need to demonstrate that they are willing to lead on long-overdue issues like this.”
Such a strategy would be intended to limit political fallout from the Hispanic community following Republicans’ assault on Obama’s orders.
Immigration activists are warning of repercussions after Thursday’s House vote to block Obama’s immigration orders. The Democratic-led Senate will not take up the bill.
“This is not a fight between Republicans and the president,” National Council of La Raza immigration policy director Clarissa Martinez-De-Castro said. “We will hold accountable anyone who chooses to play politics with people’s lives.”
Enactment of spending legislation next week would mark a victory for Boehner’s ability to prevent a rebellion among Tea Party-backed Republicans.
Tea Party Republicans’ bid to use a spending bill to defund Obamacare led to a 16-day partial government shutdown in October last year.
US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate will not consider the House bill that passed on Thursday, H.R. 5759, which would deny the president authority to protect undocumented immigrants in the US from deportation.
“It tears families apart while doing nothing to fix the real problems we face,” Reid said in a statement.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
RSS