In its vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security, the House approved a series of amendments that would wipe out provisions for the president's executive action on immigration, but the legislation that will ultimately pass Congress will likely consign that strategy to the dustbin of history.
According to Politico, the House will likely have to accept a Senate bill without immigration provisions, given the president's pledge to veto such a measure. With no choice but to fund the agency past the Feb. 27 deadline, the House GOP leadership will likely be forced to capitulate.
"If we can't pass the House bill, we'll have to come up with an idea of what can pass the Senate," Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn told Politico.
The process could ultimately be a lesson for the party about the limited ability it has to pass conservative legislation, Politico said.
In addition, even though the bill passed the House, a number of moderate Republicans felt it went too far. And 26 Republicans broke with their party to vote against an amendment that would halt the deferred deportation program for illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children, also known as "Dreamers,"
according to The Hill.
"I have no idea what the will of the House and the Senate will be at the end of the day," Florida GOP Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who voted against the funding bill because of its immigration provisions, told Politico. "I do know that at the end of the day for whatever it is to become law, it's going to require the president to not veto it."
The five immigration amendments in the House bill aimed to not only overturn the president's executive action but also roll back four years of President Barack Obama's policies to shield illegal immigrants from deportation.
"We do not take this action lightly, but simply there is no alternative," House Speaker John Boehner said in a floor speech, according to Politico. "We are dealing with a president who has ignored the people, ignored the Constitution, and even his own past statements," he said, according to The Hill.
The Senate so far has made no commitments about whether it will take up the House's bill, and a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that "members are discussing" next steps, Politico reported.
Nevertheless, Texas GOP Sen. Tex Cruz was effusive in his praise of House Republicans for passing the bill with the immigration amendments, and encouraged the Senate leadership to take up the House's legislation thereby "fulfilling our promise to the American people that we will put a stop to President Obama's unconstitutional actions," Politico reported.
In the aftermath of the House's vote, the administration was clear that a bill of that nature would not get past the president's desk.
"If a bill that includes such language comes to the president's desk, his staff and I will recommend to the president that he veto it," DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson wrote in a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, according to Politico.
"Now is not the time for the budget of the Department of Homeland Security to become a political volleyball."
Meanwhile, Democrats are united in their opposition to the House bill.
"Republicans should stop playing games and pass a clean bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security because the pointless, political bill passed in the House today will not pass the Senate," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement, according to The Hill.
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