As
good as this week's victory in the House was, it'll be short-lived.
The
DHS spending bill that would defund most of Pres. Obama's
unconstitutional executive amnesties and work permits for illegal
aliens
now moves to the Senate where the road to passage is more difficult.
Not
only will we have to reach the 60-vote minimum to beat a filibuster,
which would include convincing at least 6 Democrats to support the
legislation, but it would
also have to include keeping all Senate
Republicans in support of the bill. Senate Leadership has already hinted
that both are difficult tasks.
Obviously we
want to give our members an opportunity to vote to express their
opposition to the president's action, but we also realize at the end of
the day, in the Senate, it's going to take 60 votes.
-- Sen. Thune, Senate GOP Conference Chair
Newly
appointed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) confirmed that the
Senate will vote on the House-passed version, but that's about all he
was willing to promise.
We're going try to pass it. If we're unable to do that, we'll see what happens.
-- Sen. Mitch McConnell
Blocking
actions taken by Pres. Obama through the funding process is not a
new
concept to Sen. McConnell. In December, he suggested it in an interview
with Fox News, although he now seems less enthusiastic.
Let
me tell you what you do. You pass each bill that funds the government
separately and in those bills if you object to bureaucratic regulations
of one kind or another, or presidential actions of one kind or another,
you literally write in to the spending bill restrictions.
-- Sen. McConnell
Sen.
John Cornyn (R-Texas), who will be responsible for whipping votes for
the legislation, thinks the House-passed bill will have to be amended to
get past
the 60-vote threshold. If the Senate changes the bill, the
House could either vote
on the changes or choose to go to conference
where lawmakers from both
chambers would try to reconcile the
differences.
We'll
be pushing the Senate to pass the House-passed version of the
bill,
which means we'll be coming to you on Monday with phoning and
faxing
opportunities.
Back
in September, the entire GOP conference supported a motion by Sen.
Jeff
Sessions (R-Ala.) that would have allowed a vote on the Blackburn
amendment to defund the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
program. In addition, two Democrats who are still in the Senate (Joe
Manchin
of West Virginia and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire) also voted
with
Sessions. And other Democrats have expressed reservations about
unilateral
executive actions.
So, there is a path to passage if Senators feel enough pressure from
their voters.
Judge Delays Injunction Hearing on State's Suit
In
the legal challenge to Pres. Obama's executive amnesties, the judge
assigned to the case, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, decided to delay
until after Jan. 30 any ruling on a request for a preliminary
injunction that
would block Pres. Obama's November executive actions.
Twenty-five states
are now part of a lawsuit arguing that Obama's
executive actions on
immigration will cost states and their taxpayers
billions of dollars.
The
judge repeatedly pushed U.S. Department of Justice attorney Kathleen
Hartnett to explain the legal authority for issuing the executive
amnesty but
gave no indication on how he would rule, according to the
Associated Press.
The
plaintiffs, led by Texas Deputy Solicitor General Andrew Oldham, said
that the president's actions have violated the "Take Care Clause" of the
U.S.
Constitution, and would cause states irreparable harm due to the
billions of
dollars they would have to spend for health care, education
and law enforcement.
Oldham also said the amnesty would entice more
illegal entries and empower
future presidents to ignore other laws.
Click here to see the list of states on the lawsuit.
If
Judge Hanen issues a preliminary injunction before the end of the
month,
it would freeze Obama's implementation while the merits of the
case are
considered.
| chris chmielenski |
| Fri, Jan 16th |
| 
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