Rep. Steve King said on Thursday that he believed House Republicans would approve legislation to pay for the immigration crisis on Friday before leaving Washington for their August recess.
"I think we have a vote tomorrow morning," the Iowa Republican told Greta Van Susteren on her Fox News show
"On the Record with Greta Van Susteren." "And I think that we're likely then to gavel out and go back for August and hope the Senate does something."
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House Speaker John Boehner withdrew a plan to provide President Barack Obama with $659 million for the border crisis after conservative Republicans balked. GOP leaders then announced that they would delay the start of the five-week recess until they had approved a bill.
Late Thursday, Boehner and other House leaders were meeting with holdouts in hopes of crafting amendments to the bill to address their concerns. Legislators will hold a closed-door session Friday morning.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have given Obama $2.7 billion for the crisis. The move came on a 50-44 procedural vote, which fell 10 short of the 60 needed for approval.
Obama asked Congress for $3.7 billion earlier this month. The president was seeking the funds to address the deluge of illegal immigrant
minors who have been apprehended at the U.S. border in South Texas in recent months.
In his Fox interview, King told Van Susteren that House Republicans could not leave Washington without settling the funding issue on some level.
"Most Republicans stayed because we want a solution," he said.
Without a funding bill, Obama would easily "legalize 5 to 6 million people," King said, "probably as soon as the House or as Congress leaves town.
"We have got to send a message that we're not going to just simply go silent on the president's unconstitutional actions."
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