Move likely next week to stop funding the DHS.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans are planning to try and nix funding to President Barack Obama’s immigration executive action next week, multiple GOP aides told Politico.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is expected to introduce a bill with embedded text designed to restrict funding for the president’s executive action, which drastically altered the manner in which immigration laws are enforced in the United States.
Rules Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) told Politico on Wednesday that the House Republicans are poised to implement a measure “that would explicitly bar any funds — even those collected by fees — to be used to carry out Obama’s immigration actions.”
The bill, which deals primarily with Homeland Security, may also seek to tighten border security.
Word of McCarthy’s move against Obama’s immigration action comes exactly one day after similar news broke regarding the plans of another majority House member. Robert Aderholt of Alabama is set to introduce a bill that would override Obama’s decision to jointly defer deportations and grant work permits to 5 million undocumented immigrants.
The president will inevitably veto any bill that directly threatens his authority over the immigration reforms, with the executive action serving as something of a watershed symbol of his final term in office. A quick glance at the Gallup polls reveals that the president’s approval ratings reached an all-time low in early November but have risen steadily since he announced the changes to immigration policy shortly afterward.
Despite the inevitability of presidential vetoes, McCarthy and Aderholt’s bills are already providing the right wing with more ammo to fire across Democrats’ bows.
“If the president were to shut down Homeland Security to get his narrow political objectives done, then I think the president’s making a big mistake,” Sessions told Politico. He also brushed aside any threat of veto: “We are going to stick to our plan, and we believe it is wrong what the president has done.”