Thread: House Republicans are moving toward a vote

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/21...wn-border-bill

House Republicans are moving toward a vote on a slimmed-down border bill that would provide President Obama with less than $1 billion in funding to deal with the influx of child migrants.
While the details are still being finalized, Republicans emerged from a private meeting Friday saying that there was an overwhelming sense that the House should pass some sort of legislation to address the border crisis before the August recess.

“Our Republican conference carefully and thoughtfully considered where the country is, what needs to be done, and I believe that we will act,” said House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas). “There’s no one in there that didn’t recognize that we have to address this problem.”In order to garner enough Republican votes for the measure, Republicans are considering cutting back both the size of the $1.5 billion spending package originally proposed by House appropriators, as well the policy recommendations proposed by a working group led by Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas).
Granger said members appeared to be coalescing around changes to a 2008 human trafficking law so that uniform rules could be applied to child migrants, as well as adding more immigration judges to help speed the processing of those children.

"I really feel very confident," Granger told reporters of a potential vote.

Republicans also discussed voting on a separate resolution that would challenge Obama’s administrative actions on immigration, particularly the 2012 action that deferred deportation for some children that came to the U.S. before 2007. Members also discussed bringing up the president’s own $3.7 billion request specifically to vote it down and underscore the lack of support among Republicans for that amount.

Another possibility would be a vote on a resolution arguing that Obama has not enforced the law and caused the child migrant surge.

With a number of ideas still floating around the core legislation, it remained an open question whether GOP leaders would be able to corral enough conservatives, skeptical of the entire effort, to pass a bill in the House. A large number of House Democrats have announced their opposition to policy changes Republicans say are central to their plan.

But Republicans emerged optimistic they at least had laid out some sort of path forward that would give them a vote on something before leaving town.

“I think the bill actually has a shot to pass … which is more than I can normally say,” said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).

“I think our conference is coming together behind a solution to this problem,” said Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who takes over as Majority Whip at the end of the month. “The vast majority of our members want to solve this…in a targeted way.”

Some conservatives aren't sure they could do anything to prevent Obama from undoing their legislation to reverse the Deferred Action on Child Arrivals (DACA) program.

"We can't trust this president. He could go in and issue an executive order again the next week," said Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas). "How do you hold the feet to his fire? I don't know how the legislation could do that."

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) questioned whether a symbolic House vote on the DACA program would help their cause.

"Do we really need a vote to say that DACA isn't the law?" Gohmert said. "The only thing it passed was the president's lips."

Other Republicans worry that the Senate would try to attach comprehensive immigration reform to a House-passed border package. But the predominant concern from many Republicans is the political attacks they would face from Democrats if they failed to act political on the issue and left Washington for five weeks.

Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) said it would send a "terrible message" if the House left for the August recess without moving legislation addressing the influx of child migrants.

“There’s a big political risk if we leave without doing something,” said Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas). “The president is a master at trying to deflect his failures onto the Congress. I don’t know that this one would stick, but why put ourselves in that situation?”

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/21...#ixzz38VRtVxDu

House GOP moving forward on border plan





By JAKE SHERMAN and SEUNG MIN KIM | 7/25/14 11:22 AM EDT Updated: 7/25/14 3:02 PM EDT

House Republicans will try to pass a bill addressing the border crisis next week with a pared-back price tag of less than $1 billion, according to multiple sources.

The mood in a Friday morning closed-door GOP meeting was mostly positive, and much of the strident opposition from conservatives that GOP aides and lawmakers expected did not materialize, according to sources present. Leadership is cautiously confident that a package will reach the floor next week before the chamber recesses for its August break.

The legislation, which initially was expected to cost about $1.5 billion, will include changes to the 2008 anti-trafficking law that effectively made it more difficult to deport children from Central America, and it will also send National Guard troops to the border.

“We’re focusing on a narrow package that specifically addresses this crisis at the border,” said Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who will become the Republican whip next week. “We’re dealing with what’s happening right now; that is a major crisis that the president won’t solve, the president has the ability to solve. We’re going to lead and put a plan in place to solve it.”

(Also on POLITICO: Obama's immigration flip flop)

The House Republican leadership is also discussing plans to hold a separate vote gutting a 2012 Obama administration directive that deferred deportations for young undocumented immigrants that many Republicans have blamed for the spike in unaccompanied minors.

Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who led the drafting of the policy recommendations in the border-crisis plan, said on Friday that House Republicans were down to “bare-bones suggestions” on what to pass before lawmakers leave for the August recess. Included in the scaled-back plan is revising the 2008 law, allow border patrol agents to access federal lands, deploy National Guard troops, boost the number of immigration court judges, and work with the Central American countries to help repatriate the unaccompanied children.

She later confirmed that the provision from her original recommendations that would call on the Department of Homeland Security to develop a strategy to get operational control of the southern border was dropped.

“We kept the most important parts,” Granger said.

The Democratic-controlled Senate is moving in a different direction, planning to vote next week on a measure that directs $2.7 billion to the border crisis with no policy changes attached.

(Also on POLITICO: An Obamacare gotcha moment)

The biggest question for Speaker John Boehner, incoming Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Scalise is whether they can cobble together 218 votes for the bill. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said changes to the 2008 law and appropriating more money to deal with the issues at the border should be handled separately. Democrats are expected to vote en masse against any Republican border plan that touches the 2008 law.

“These are different walls that we are addressing,” Pelosi said Friday. “One of them is to address the needs and we need the supplemental to do that because we have an emergency situation that needs to be addressed. Secondly we’re talking about immigration law. What is happening at the border is a case for passing comprehensive immigration reform.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...#ixzz38VfLNPHG

The word play has got to stop. These 'children' are not migrants. They are illegal aliens. None of them are 'migrants'. Please folks, when calling your reps, make it clear to them that you know what they are doing with the little word games and they need to stop it now. These are ILLEGAL ALIENS flooding our country. ILLEGAL ALIENS.

But the predominant concern from many Republicans is the political attacks they would face from Democrats if they failed to act political on the issue and left Washington for five weeks.

So you think this will stop political attacks from the left, this is like thinking Israel can make peace with Hamas, won't happen GOP get that through your thick heads.

Tell Congress the conditions for approving Pres. Obama's emergency funding request

Dear Your Members of Congress,

On July 8, Pres. Obama submitted an $3.7 billion emergency funding request to help stop the illegal-alien border surge on the U.S.-Mexico border. Unfortunately, the President's request would only help relieve the symptoms rather than fix the actual causes for the surge. I urge you not to approve any emergency funding unless the following conditions are included.

1) Change the 2008 law so that unaccompanied alien minors from noncontiguous countries are treated the same way those from Mexico and Canada are treated. Under current law, these minors are issued Notices to Appear and then turned over to Health and Human Services, whereas minors from Mexico and Canada are immediately returned to their home country;

2) No foreign aid will be sent to the sending countries until they agree to take back their citizens; and

3) All the extra domestic money should go to the Border Patrol and ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations to detain, process, and remove the illegal crossers. Funding should NOT go to: the Department of Health and Human Services to warehouse illegal crossers; to any agency to transport the border surgers around the U.S.; and certainly not to the "charities" that are paid to resettle refugees in unsuspecting communities.

These three conditions will send a strong message to foreign citizens that illegal entry into the United States will not be tolerated, and thus end the ongoing illegal-alien border surge. Please ensure each one of these conditions are included in any emergency funding bill before casting your vote.

https://www.numbersusa.com/sendfax

All they are doing is trying to come up with something that will keep them from being attacked by their constituents when they return home, nothing more. Watch what I tell you, it will be more double talk.

BTTT