House Republicans emerged from a closed-door meeting Tuesday to say they are leaning toward funding the government now, but setting up a fight early next year over President Obama’s temporary amnesty.
Their plan would include passing an omnibus spending bill to fund most of the government’s regular operations through the end of the fiscal year, but pulling out funding for Homeland Security, and passing a short-term stopgap bill to keep those programs running through early next year. That would give the GOP a chance to return to the issue once their party takes control of the Senate in January.
House Speaker John A. Boehner said no final decision has been made.
“We’re looking at a number of options in how we address this,” the Ohio Republican said. “We have limited options and limited ability to deal with it directly.”
The GOP leaders planned a whip count Tuesday to determine support for the plan, but a large faction of conservative members already balked that they would not support any bill that does not bar funding for Mr. Obama’s amnesty plan.
“I will not vote to fund the president’s lawless, unconstitutional act and they should not be asking members to do so,” said Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican. “This is the time to fight, this is the ground to fight on. And I’m a little bit amazed that that isn’t more clear to more people.”
Another sticking point appeared to be the length of the short-term funding, with the conferences’ more conservative members pushing for funding only through mid-January in order to confront Mr. Obama on the issue as soon as the new Congress convenes.
“If we fund it to mid-March, half the year is already funded,” said Rep. John Fleming, Louisiana Republican. “They’re printing work permits right now.”
Republicans emerged from their meeting to say they don’t want to see a government shutdown, and don’t believe that’s the path they’re paving.
“We’re not going to take that bait,” said Rep. Dennis Ross, Florida Republican.
The GOP has been struggling for weeks to figure out how to avoid a shutdown showdown while also taking a stand against Mr. Obama’s immigration moves.
Some conservatives had called for insisting that any funding for the government also use Congress’s power of the purse to forbid Mr. Obama from moving ahead with his plans, which he is still in the process of finalizing. But GOP leaders had warned that could lead to a shutdown.
Their current plan would fund education, parks, the defense department, health programs and the rest of government through Sept. 30, 2015, while funding homeland security spending through March. That would give them a new deadline for trying to rein in Mr. Obama’s actions.
Democrats called the GOP plan “cynical” and said it leaves important functions in limbo.
“Singling out DHS, by funding it through a continuing resolution, undermines its ability to carry out its critical homeland security mission such as protecting our air, land and sea borders and cyberspace,” said Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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