But if we segue right from an election that gave Republicans control, after which incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell flatly pledged no shutdown, to a shutdown right before the holidays, that would not bode well for the public image of the new Congress. Whether there is any circumstance in which a shutdown would not be blamed on Congress is an interesting thing to test. And in any case, the president could veto other spending bills and take the case to the country. Second, it will be difficult to construct a bill that would cut off funding for the executive order without cutting funding for immigration activities overall, including the Border Patrol. First, if there is only a short-term extension, it might be blocked in the Senate, leading to a possible shutdown in December.
Making that work is a very tricky and explosive business. There are more than 200 stalled executive-branch positions awaiting action, including dozens of ambassadors to key countries around the world. Most programs would be extended through the year, but there would be a narrow, targeted bill cutting off funding to implement the executive order. That strategy starts with a set of short-term CRs that expire in January. As numerous news stories have pointed out, there is now a lot of pushback to that approach, a scramble to come up with a strategy to use the spending leverage to blow up the president's executive order. The first is to follow the money.īefore the election, anticipating a Republican Senate, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy made clear that he wanted the new, all-Republican Congress to start out on a strong and positive footing by clearing the decks in the lame-duck session of troublesome and divisive matters, starting with spending bills-doing a clean continuing resolution through the current fiscal year that would move the budget and appropriations showdowns to later next year. There are two areas, in particular, I am watching right now. Bush took sweeping executive actions on deferring deportations without a peep from Congress, it is the case that the president's move will change the dynamics of policy-making and politics during the weeks ahead, and beyond. Regardless of that set of facts, and the additional fact that both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Guess what? Mitch McConnell led a filibuster that killed the Dream. There was majority support in the Senate. Which neatly ignores another reality: During that time, the House passed handily the Dream Act, a major step toward broader immigration reform. Meanwhile, the favorite GOP talking point on the subject has been that Democrats had majorities in both chambers in 20 and failed to act. From the lovefest it's been for the past decade." The reality is that there were ample opportunities over the past four years for the House of Representatives to take a constructive step on immigration, especially after the big, super-majority vote in the Senate on a comprehensive bill. I tweeted last week, "House Republicans say Obama exec action on immigration will make it toxic for a decade. Will there be anything left of this compromise and common ground? With the apparent determination of President Obama to issue his executive order on immigration this week, the lame-duck session in Congress takes on a fascinating set of twists. I mourn his loss and the loss of his model in the GOP, both in Washington and Minnesota.
#Merkels latest leading lame duck how to#
He was a bridge-builder, not a bomb-thrower, a free-market, business-oriented conservative who knew how to find common ground and forge compromises. That was Frenzel, a throwback to an earlier era both in Congress and in the Republican Party. I worked especially closely with him on the Office of Congressional Ethics, where he was a stalwart member, helping to ensure its integrity and providing some of the glue that meant that all of its decisions, from a diverse membership cutting across all partisan and ideological lines, were unanimous. Bill was my congressman and also a dear friend.
First, and sadly, I need to acknowledge the death of a great figure from Congress, Bill Frenzel of Minnesota.
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