House passes border funding bill

Republicans in the House passed a $698 million border funding bill that would speed deportation of illegal immigrant children and authorize funds for the deployment of National Guard troops at the border.

The Senate adjourned for the summer recess without passing a much larger $2.7 billion border funding bill that would have allowed the illegal children to stay until their asylum requests were heard.

Republican leadership was able to convince most of the holdout conservatives to vote for the bill by also allowing a vote on a bill that would prevent President Obama from expanmding his deferred deportation executive order allowing some DREAMers to remain in the US. That measure also passed.

The Hill:

Republicans during Friday’s debate repeatedly noted that they were in town legislating while the Democratic-run Senate had already left for the recess. The Senate failed to advance a larger $2.7 billion border bill on Thursday.

Republicans urged the Senate to come back and negotiate a compromise.

"The House is here working," said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.). "I encourage the Senate to come back and do their job."

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in a statement took a shot at Obama. 

"If President Obama needs these resources, he will urge Senate Democrats to put politics aside, come back to work, and approve our bill," Boehner said. "There are also steps the president can take to address this crisis within the law, and without further legislative action. Every day the president and his party fail to act is another day this crisis continues.” 

Passage fell largely along party lines in the 223-189 vote. Only four Republicans voted against the funding measure, while Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas) was the only Democrat to support it.

The four Republican no votes were Reps. Paul Broun (Ga.), Stephen Fincher (Tenn.), Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Walter Jones (N.C.).

Following passage of the border supplemental package, the House approved a second measure in a 216-192 vote that would prevent the Obama administration from expanding the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) program. The program provides two-year work permits for undocumented immigrants who arrived to the U.S. as children before 2007.
 
Eleven Republicans broke ranks and voted against the measure: Reps. Mark Amodei (Nev.), Mike Coffman (Colo.), Jeff Denham (Calif.), Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Cory Gardner (Colo.), Joe Heck (Nev.), Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Dave Reichert (Wash.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), David Valadao (Calif) and Fred Upton (Mich.). 
 
Gardner is running for the Senate against Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.).
 
Democrat Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) voted present and Democrats John Barrow (Ga.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Mike McIntyre (N.C.) and Nick Rahall (W.Va.) supported the measure. Barrow, Peterson and Rahall are all in tough reelection races, which McIntyre is retiring.
It's interesting that the president and Senate Democrats are excoriating Republicans for passing a border funding bill while the Senate left town without passing anything. The Republican bill would have funded the programs that feed and house illegal alien children. Those programs will run out of money before Congress reconvenes in September and President Obama said that he would be forced to take money from other accounts to pay for the children's needs.
 
The bill that would prevent President Obama from granting amnesty to the families of DREAMers anticipates the president's upcoming executive orders that reportedly will grant work permits to 5 million illegal aliens. It has no chance in the Senate, however, but has put President Obama on notice that the backlash against any such action will be huge.

 

 

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