Arizona Group Again Helping Immigrants Renew DACA Status

Just a few hours before the House vote, a bloc of more conservative Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus had vowed to vote against the bill, frustrated with the process that has once again left Congress far behind on budget work for 2018. Congress needs to pass at least short-term government funding by Friday or the government will shut down.

The Republican lawmakers who reportedly ate Italian food Tuesday evening have been fighting Democrats over DACA, an Obama-era program that has allowed undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S.as children to stay in the country.

However, the Republican proposal could also face opposition among their own hardline rank-and-file in the House. Active duty military personnel are not furloughed. Mail would be delivered.

But thousands of federal workers could see their pay delayed, regulatory agencies, national parks and museums could close and other non-essential services would stop.

“They’re in the majority and they should be able to govern on that”, he said.

“I’m not going to vote for a C.R.”, he said. But it was not yet clear whether Majority Leader McConnell would schedule it for a floor debate and vote.

Up against a Friday midnight deadline, Republicans were now angling for passing a bill that extends federal spending into mid-February and re-authorizes the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years, with no immigration-related measure included. The White House released a statement earlier Thursday in support of the bill. “KICK THE CAN” No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer said Democrats have not decided whether they will support another continuing resolution and “can kick the can down the road one more time“.

The U.S. House passed re-authorization for CHIP back in November but the Senate never voted on it. Westerman says funding CHIP shouldn’t be a political issue. They don’t want to stop drugs, and they want to take money away from our military, which we can not do.

The bipartisan deal called for $2.7 billion for an array of border security steps.

But attaching CHIP funding to a short-term budget bill is literally the plan that congressional Republicans are now pushing on Capitol Hill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Thursday morning that the House CR would not be acceptable to Senate Democrats. “Eventually, we need to make progress on the biggest issues before us”. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, led an unsuccessful effort to defund Obamacare. Therefore, they said that Durbin has a history of misrepresenting what happens in meetings at the White House.

The plans serve in part as a threat to Democrats who have grown increasingly willing to keep McConnell from the 60 votes he would need to pass a short-term funding bill and avoid a shutdown.

On the Senate side, Democrats have more leverage, because nine of their votes are needed to pass the continuing resolution.