Thread: New GOP House Whip vows to stay in Washington until Congress has immigration plan

New House Whip vows to stay in Washington until Congress has immigration plan

Published July 27, 2014 FoxNews.com

Central Americans ride a freight train toward the U.S.-Mexico border, on July 12, 2014.AP

Rep. Steve Scalise, the incoming House Majority Whip, said Sunday he will stay in Washington until Congress agrees to an emergency spending plan for the border-immigration crisis, but declined to say whether he will cancel the lower chamber’s August recess.

“I’m going to stay until it’s done,” said Scalise, R-La., the Tea Party-backed lawmaker who in June became the No. 3 Republican in the GOP-led House after Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his re-election bid.

In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” Scalise also laid out House Republicans' legislative agenda before the November elections, including a vow to agree to a spending bill before the federal government runs out of money in October -- avoiding the possibility of a so-called government shutdown.

Scalise said House Republicans want to keep the government funded at current levels.

He also said the GOP will continue to address problems with ObamaCare that would include plans to repeal the law and find alternatives for consumers, including the possibility of allowing them to buy government-backed insurance across state lines, which could lower premium costs.

“This is something that I am absolutely passionate about," said Scalise, who suggested the possibility of another attempt to repeal ObamaCare, the president’s signature 2012 health-care reform law.

On the border-immigration issue, House Republicans appear to want a $1 billion emergency-spending plan, as an alternative to President Obama’s $3.7 billion request.

“I believe that we will act,” House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, told The Hill newspaper Friday after a private meeting. “There’s no one in there that didn’t recognize that we have to address this problem.”

The United States’ southern border has been overwhelmed over the past nine months by an estimated 57,000 Central American children coming illegally into the country and hoping to stay, based on a 2008 law that protects children from non-bordering countries from human trafficking.

The crisis has resulted in the need for more U.S. personnel on the border and elsewhere to deal with security and legal issues and the related humanitarian needs for the incoming youths, such as food and shelter.

Scalise also said Sunday that much of the problem is Obama and the Democrat-controlled Senate failing to act, not the House divide among leadership, Democrats and the GOP conservative wing.

“A lot of issues have passed in the House with Democratic support,” he said.

“There are 300 bills sitting in the Senate. … And yet the Senate refuses to act, the president refuses to act.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014...-on-emergency/

That is really nice, but the last proposal put out by the speaker will not do the job and please anybody. You have got do something that guarantees enforcement of our border not provide funds for South America's problem teenagers. We are not their keepers. This compassion BS is long gone. If they feel sorry for their children they should keep them at home and take care of them instead of sending to us to provide for. The U. S. taxpayers are taxed too much already, we cannot provide for our own children. The U.S. taxpayers cannot support the world. South America needs to start taxing their drug runners and they would have plenty of money to take of their own children.

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

Sunday, 27 Jul 2014 01:18 PM
By Sandy Fitzgerald
newsmax



Incoming House Majority Whip-elect Steve Scalise, R-La., Sunday blamed President Barack Obama for the ongoing border crisis, but would not directly answer whether the House will initiate impeachment proceedings if Obama takes executive action on the situation.

"This might be the first White House in history that's trying to start the narrative of impeaching their own president," Scalise told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. "Ultimately, what we want to do is see the president follow the laws. The president took an oath to enforce the laws of this land, and he is not.

"The White House wants to talk about impeachment and they're trying to fundraise off that, too," Scalise said, insisting that the Obama administration will do "anything it can" to change the topic away from the president's failed agenda.

On Friday, White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer told reporters that Republicans might try to impeach Obama over his go-it-alone immigration strategy, as Obama prepared to talk about the U.S. border crisis with Central American presidents.

The executive actions on illegal immigration Obama will approve at the end of the summer will likely generate ire from Republicans who have blocked comprehensive immigration legislation, said Pfeiffer, one of the president's longest-serving advisers.

Ultimately, the matter of border security is Obama's responsibility, said Scalise, who was selected to replace Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy when McCarthy was elected to replace outgoing Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., after Cantor's stunning loss in the Virginia primary earlier this summer. Scalise's term begins August 1.

"He could fix this today," said Scalise. "He’s been AWOL on it."

"The president has a lot of time to secure fundraisers, but no time to secure the border," Scalise told Wallace. "He wants to sit back and play politics, he's flying around the country to hold fundraisers, but hasn't had time to come and sit down with Congress."

Congress is due to head out on recess in five days, and Scalise would not commit to whether that will be postponed to allow further work on a border security bill.

"We're not even on recess," said Scalise, noting that the House will take leadership on the action. "We're here right now and we're ready to work."

He also noted that any legislation passed should include reversing a 2008 anti-trafficking law that keeps the United States from quickly deporting migrants from any country other than Mexico and Canada.

Meanwhile, Scalise accused Obama of wanting to "sit back and point fingers," but insisted the House will do its job, even if the Senate and Obama don't.

"At some point the president should sit down and say, 'Do we really want to solve this problem?'" Scalise said. "I want to solve this problem. I’m going to stay working until we get it done. The House is going to take leadership."

But while Scalise would not rule out impeachment or postponing the upcoming Congressional recess, he was firm on one looming matter — ruling out the potential for another government shutdown this fall.

The current round of government funding is set to expire at the end of September, and Scalise insisted House Republicans will not be shutting down the government come Oct. 1. He noted there are already measures in place to keep the government running, even if there is disagreement in financial talks.

"We're going to keep the government running at its current levels," Scalise told Wallace.

Scalise is the first tea party member who has reached the top of Republican leadership in the House, and he told Wallace that Republicans need to "focus on those things that unite us," such as the more than 300 House bills that continue to languish in the Senate.

He said he also plans to push for the House to work on a conservative healthcare plan that not only repeals, but replaces Obamacare, noting that he's passionate about lowering costs and putting patients back in charge of their own healthcare.

Scalise said he also wants Obama and the Senate to put a plan on the table for saving Medicare and Social Security. He has called for raising the age limits for both programs, and insisted the Republican plan will save the programs while Democrats will destroy it.

"If Medicare goes bust, that's not responsible," said Scalise.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/sca.../27/id/585155/

Added newsmax article to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/content.php?r=3...-Border-Crisis