WASHINGTON— What’s become a perennial fight to fund the government is even more heated for Republicans this year in the aftermath of President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration.
Echoing other GOP leaders, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Tuesday that Obama’s order protecting millions of immigrants from being deported, has “poisoned the well” and led to a 2015 spending bill that pushes back at the White House.
Led by Speaker John Boehner, House Republicans met in a closed session Tuesday to develop a plan that would finance the government through the 2015 fiscal year, but hold the Department of Homeland Security on a tighter leash. The agency, which is responsible for enforcing immigration law, would only be funded temporarily under the emerging plan.
The two-part Republican plan includes a bill challenging the president’s executive order on immigration, introduced by Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla. That bill is awaiting action in the House Judiciary Committee. Even if it passes the House, it’s not likely to go far in the Senate, which remains under Democratic control through the end of the year. The broader plan also includes what’s being called the “Cromnibus” legislation, which includes elements of a continuing resolution, or CR, and elements of an omnibus appropriations bill, bundling together a number of spending measures.
Details are not set in stone. “No decisions have been made at this point,” Boehner said at a news conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning.
But Homeland Security Chief Jeh Johnson warned that the department could not function with short-term spending only, as envisioned by the continuing resolution. At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Tuesday, Johnson said border control and hiring of Secret Service agents would be affected if Congress does not pass an appropriations bill covering homeland security through Sept. 30, 2015.
“We’ve got some homeland security priorities that need to be funded now,” Johnson said at the hearing, called to discuss Obama’s executive action on immigration. “I cannot continue to fund our enhanced detention facility in Texas,” he said, referring to the new 2,400-bed center in Dilley, 70 miles southwest of San Antonio.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., dismissed the idea of putting Homeland Security in budgetary limbo, while every other agency is funded for the full fiscal year.
“You should really think about the message that sends about Congress’s commitment to homeland security,” Thompson said.
Congress must pass a spending bill by Dec. 11 to avoid another government shutdown.