Against the wishes of some conservatives, Speaker John Boehner announced on Thursday that the House will move forward with a strategy to avoid a government shutdown next week and at least temporarily let President Barack Obama implement his sweeping executive actions on immigration.
Boehner said he expects his plan to pass with “bipartisan support.”
The Ohio Republican’s two-part strategy is to pass essentially a symbolic bill by Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) this week to disapprove of Obama’s executive actions (in order to appease conservatives), and to pass a “CRomnibus” next week — an omnibus spending bill through September, combined with a stopgap continuing resolution to fund the federal department that implements immigration law through March.
Boehner has courted the support of House Democrats, many of whom are open to his funding proposal as long as it excludes legislative riders to restrict President Barack Obama’s sweeping executive actions, which allow for three-year work permits for more than 4 million undocumented immigrants.
“For me that would be a nonstarter. For Democrats, generally speaking, I think that would be a nonstarter,” Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) told TPM, signaling openness to a short-term funding bill that doesn’t restrict Obama’s moves.
Boehner called his plan “the most practical way to fight the president’s actions.”
“Frankly, we listened to our members. And we listened to some members who were, frankly, griping the most. This was their idea of how to proceed,” he said.
Boehner has reached out to House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) for help. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Thursday that Democrats “want to work together to pass a bill to keep government open,” but “we can’t do it unless we have a bill that is worthy of our support.”
Immigration-wary conservatives are working to scuttle Boehner’s plan. On Wednesday Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called on House Republican leaders to block funding for Obama’s immigration actions now. On Thursday, the outside group Heritage Action announced it’ll whip Republican members to vote against Boehner’s plan, calling it a “blank check for amnesty.” RedState editor Erick Erickson is pushing conservatives to call House Republicans in an effort to thwart Boehner.
For now, the strategy appears on course to pass, but it could yet fall apart if enough Republicans get cold feet and bolt by next week.
“It is stupid to even be considering shutting the government down for any reason whatsoever,” Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) told TPM. He expressed concern that there are “just enough nuts” in the Republican caucus to scuttle an agreement.
Boehner suggested the new Republican Congress will fight Obama when it takes office next year, but he wouldn’t discuss how, and cautioned that the party has “limited options” to do so.
“There are a lot of options on the table. I’m not going to get into hypotheticals of what we could and couldn’t do,” he said. “But I do know this. Come January we’ll have a Republican House and a Republican Senate, and we’ll be in a stronger position to take action.”
