House and Senate Republicans clash on immigration
House and Senate Republicans have spent years training their ire on Sen. Harry Reid and President Barack Obama. But now theyâre clashing with each other. Story Continued Below And that poses a challenge for GOP senatorsâ initial strategy for escaping their immigration dilemma, which involves convincing their House counterparts that their aggressive attacks on Obamaâs policies stand no chance of becoming law. House Republicans so far arenât buying it, saying Republican senators need to fight harder. âPeople are counting on them to deliver,â an angry Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said of the Senate. âWe sent them a bill, and they need to pass it. They need to pass our bill.â With a hint of sarcasm, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) shot back: âTo pass a bill over here, it takes 60 votes. Unless we can figure out some way of multiplying, it seems to me that we have an issue that is very difficult to deal with.â The back-and-forth speaks to the growing tension between House and Senate Republicans over their attempts to push back against Obamaâs executive actions deferring deportations for millions of undocumented immigrants. Even before this week, House GOP lawmakers were worried that Senate Republicans would move too slowly, give up on fights too easily and fail to stand up to Obamaâs White House â even with the long-sought majority in their hands. The House went all-out against Obamaâs immigration policies last month, passing a $39.7 billion Department of Homeland Security spending bill with riders nullifying years of the presidentâs unilateral actions. But twice this week, the House bill plan has failed to overcome Democratic filibusters in the Senate, and at least two more repeat votes are in the works. GOP senators believe that once House Republicans are convinced their plan cannot overcome a filibuster, the party can begin searching for a Plan B. House Republican leadership is in on the strategy and has made clear to top Senate Republicans that they need to fight for the legislation to make sure itâs âabundantly clearâ it cannot pass. A fallback plan could mean anything from a watered-down attack on the presidentâs policies to a short-term funding bill or even the âcleanâ DHS funding bill that Democrats are demanding, which would leave the Obama immigration plan standing. House Republican leadership says itâs in a bind and doubts that more than a few dozen of their lawmakers would vote for a clean bill. They say the Senate must include some language to chip away at Obamaâs immigration policies for a bill to clear the House â but Senate leaders are in a quandary because they canât change the bill if Democrats block the floor debate from even occurring. âThis is very frustrating, because this is a good bill,â said Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), who chairs the subcommittee that writes DHSâ budget. âIt really does some things we really need.â He added: âPolitically, [McConnell] needs to make a lot of noise. Because the constituency is very upset aboutâ Obamaâs changes to immigration policy. Once itâs clear the bill has stalled in the Senate, where Republicans hold 54 seats, GOP senators say that the House will have to take up a new bill because funding bills must originate in that chamber. âI think the House has to be convinced that the Senate is not going to be able to move what they sent us,â said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 3 GOP leader. âItâs a process, and itâs all what the traffic will bear. How do you get to 60 in the Senate and 218 in the House â how do you thread that needle?â No one knows the answer to that yet, and the wily Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), is giving little insight into his thinking both privately and publicly, though he is railing on Democrats for blocking the House bill from even coming to a debate. McConnellâs chief deputy, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, threw cold water Wednesday on passing a short-term funding bill if no agreement is reached â even though several top House Republicans privately suggest that could be the only solution. âI think there are a number of people who say we donât need any more legislating by crisis and cliffs, and I agree with that 100 percent,â Cornyn said when asked about the possibility of a stopgap measure. What has caused the most consternation among top Republicans is a palpable fear that their party could incur a political backlash if the impasse causes a shutdown of an agency so essential to national security if no deal is reached before the Feb. 27 deadline. Even though virtually every GOP lawmaker blames Obama and Democrats for refusing to negotiate and spawning the impasse, a number of Republicans argue that they would lose the media and public relations war if a shutdown occurs. Such a funding crisis would come at an inopportune time, senior Republicans say, just weeks after they assumed power in the Senate for the first time in nearly a decade and with national security threats growing from abroad. Yet GOP leaders also persuaded their right flank to hold their fire on immigration during last winterâs lame-duck session, promising they would renew the fight immediately at the start of the new Congress. Anything less than a full-fledged battle would spark a revolt from the right. âThe leadership could do a lot more aggressive job,â said Republican firebrand Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who also said he doesnât mind blowing past the Feb. 27 deadline. âSometimes a signal comes out that says we canât do this. We sent the bill over there; that means they have a mountain to climb. You donât look at the summit and think, âI canât get there.ââ House Republican leaders, meanwhile, are trying to figure out just what will satisfy their rank and file. They are mulling over legislation to join a number of statesâ lawsuits against the Obama administrationâs immigration policies, but thereâs internal dissent on when that should come up. Itâs unlikely to come up next week because Republicans want to concentrate on passing a bill to build the Keystone XL pipeline, which will prompt Obamaâs first veto of the new Congress. Asked about the next legislative steps on the DHS bill, McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said Democrats will have a chance âto end their filibusterâ when the Senate votes again to bring the House bill forward. âWe canât amend the bill (with their ideas or ours) until we get on the bill,â Stewart said. Tension between the House and the Senate is old as the history of Congress. With its rules that allow the majority party to govern with an iron fist, the party in power in the House can often quickly push through its agenda with little concern for the minority. The Senate, with its rules that allow any one senator to stop legislation in its tracks, gives the minority ample opportunities to derail legislation. The immigration fight is giving Washington its first taste of a House-Senate battle since Republicans took power last month. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the criticism from House Republicans lacks any semblance of reality. âIâd like to hear their recipe, given the rules of the Senate, as to what they want us to do,â McCain said Wednesday. â[McConnell] has got it on the floor, we tried to get cloture. We canât change the rules of the Senate. So Iâm open to any suggestion that they may have that is workable â only I donât believe we should shut down the Department of Homeland Security, given the threats that are obviously out there and the attacks on America.â McCainâs Arizona colleague, GOP Sen. Jeff Flake, pushed back against the House conservativesâ suggestion that Republican senators were not fighting hard enough, saying, âItâs not an issue of commitment, itâs a matter of math.â âThe best response we can make is not to stick a finger in the presidentâs eye. Letâs put legislation on his desk,â Flake said. Asked about the current strategy of repeated procedural votes on the House bill, Flake said: âWe can go through the motions, sure, but I donât think weâre fooling anybody. Because we need [Democratic] support to get on the bill.â Despite pleas from more senior members to be cognizant of the challenges in the Senate, many House conservatives, such as Republican Study Committee Chairman Bill Flores of Texas, think the chamber should work harder to woo Democrats. âWe should hold [Senate Republicansâ] feet to the fire,â Flores said in an interview. âThereâs no reason about a Plan B until they have exhausted Plan A. The Senate Republicans need to be talking to their Democratic friends and say how is it tolerable for you to not support the Constitution.â Told that Senate Republicans are questioning the Houseâs strategy, he said: âIf thatâs what theyâre saying, that means theyâre not standing up for the Constitution either â and I know most of them, when they took their oath of office, they meant it. If they want to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, theyâll hold Democratsâ feet to the fire.â Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia freshman Republican and former House member, said members on the other side of the Capitol often are unaware of the procedural challenges in the Senate. âI think thereâs a tendency to forget that firmly held beliefs are on each side,â Capito said. âAnd to swing four, five or six people is not as easy as it must sound.â Rep. Marlin Stutzman, an Indiana Republican, said that this is the âfirst test in the Senate to see how they can get things done.â âWeâll wait and see what they can work through, and itâs a first impression, so I hope itâs a good one,â he said.