House Speaker John A. Boehner said Congress’s hand is weak when it comes to trying to stop President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, but said Thursday he and his GOP colleagues will try anyway — though he refused to say whether he would use the power of the purse to its fullest extent.
Mr. Boehner said the GOP is pursuing a three-pronged strategy, beginning with a vote later Thursday on a bill that would officially nullify Mr. Obama’s temporary amnesty. That will be followed with a short-term bill funding the Homeland Security Department until early next year, when Republicans will control both chambers of Congress and take another swipe.
“We think this is the most practical way to fight the president’s action,” he said.
Minutes after he spoke, the White House budget office released a statement vowing Mr. Obama’s veto on the bill to nullify his actions, saying it would lead to “devastating consequences.”
“It would lead to the separation of families and prevent additional Dreamers from fully contributing to American life,” the administration said in its statement. “It would also make it more difficult for immigration officials to conduct background checks, for undocumented workers to help the economy by paying taxes, and for the federal government to focus on removing serious criminals, recent border crossers, and other threats.”
Mr. Boehner will likely have to rely on Democrats to carry out his strategy, since many conservatives have said they will refuse to vote for the short-term homeland security funding bill unless it specifically denies Mr. Obama the money to carry out his amnesty.
They are increasingly angry over Mr. Boehner’s refusal to force the full fight this year, and Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, said Mr. Boehner’s speakership could be threatened. He said it will depend on how next week’s vote shakes out.
“But I think that if the decision that comes from the leadership team, primarily the speaker, calls upon House Republicans to vote to fund the president’s lawless, unconstitutional acts, I think that question needs to be raised, and that’ll be the dialogue that takes place on up until Jan. 6, when the constitutional vote [would] take place here on the floor of the House,” he said on Tim Constantine’s Capitol Hill Show, a partner of The Washington Times.
Mr. Boehner has said that fight should come next year, when the GOP has “reinforcements” — the larger House majority and new Senate majority voters elected in November.
But the Ohio Republican refused to say whether he would use the power of the purse to its fullest by withholding other homeland security funding unless Mr. Obama relents and curbs his executive actions.
“There are a lot of options in the table, and I’m not going to get into hypotheticals,” he said. “But I do know this — come January we’ll have a Republican House and Republican Senate, and we’ll be in a stronger position to take actions.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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