John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives, has come up with a proposal for funding the US government for the rest of the fiscal year by leaving immigration agencies out of the equation in a bid to try to prevent another government shutdown.
The plan is currently a work in progress, according to the Republican leader, who is trying to gain support for the plan from other party members. Under the proposal, immigration agencies would only gain funding until the beginning of 2015, when those in the Republican Party believe they will have more leverage to fight President Obama’s plan to use executive action to enact immigration reform to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.
Undoing Obama’s executive order is anticipated to become an ongoing legislative battle; however, Republican party leaders are trying to avoid going down the same road that led to a government shutdown last year, particularly given the fact that in January the Republican party will be in charge of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The latter is currently held by the Democrats.
Although Boehner favors the idea of turning public opinion against Obama’s plan, and a possible court challenge, others are insisting on a tougher response. “I don’t think you [can] fund any unconstitutional action, even if it’s for a short period of time,” argued Representative Joe Barton, although the chance of this stance being adopted as policy by the Republicans now seems unlikely.