A little-known freshman lawmaker was behind the legislation passed by the House on Thursday that seeks to block the president's action on immigration, a move that may have placated conservatives enough to avoid a government shutdown,
Politico reported.
The measure was introduced by Florida Rep. Ted Yoho and
passed with a majority of 219-197.
It states that the executive branch cannot exempt "by executive order, regulation, or any other means, categories of persons unlawfully present in the United States from removal under the immigration laws," and adds that presidential exemptions of types of immigrants from deportations would be "null and void and without legal effect."
The tea party lawmaker introduced the plan the same day Obama issued his executive action, and worked steadily to gain support from the leadership in the weeks during which House Speaker
John Boehner was struggling to find a strategy that would unify the party.
Ultimately the leadership bought into the plan, believing that it would satisfy conservative lawmakers who otherwise wanted to attach immigration language to the spending bill: a course that would have led to a government shutdown.
"When people said they had all these ideas," a senior House Republican told Politico, "Yoho was one of only a few who put it together. He had a good idea, and because it was a good idea, it got to the floor."
Yoho said he introduced the bill because "enough is enough."
"The Constitution is something we need to abide by, or what in the heck are we here for?" Yoho told Newsmax.
"If he wants to
legislate with a pen, send all the Congress home," Yoho said. "My goal is to take his ink out of his pen."
Some believe his bill was only symbolic, particularly given that the Senate is not expected to take it up, a point which Yoho addressed.
"I had people say it was a symbolic gesture. We didn't put it in for symbolism, but if they want to use it for a symbolic gesture, okay, let's use it for that," Yoho told Politico. "And that symbolic gesture is, we're going to hold the president accountable to the rule of law, to the Constitution."
With the vote out of the way, the leadership intends to proceed with the second part of its strategy to counter the president's actions. The plan is to pass a broad-based spending bill before the Dec. 11 deadline but give only short-term funding to immigration enforcement agencies until it can address the issue in the New Year.