House sends Obama message with immigration vote
House Republicans took their first vote against President Barack Obama's action on immigration on Thursday -- passing a tea party bill that Hill leaders hope will offer conservatives enough catharsis to prevent a government shutdown next week.
The legislation cleared the Republican-led chamber 219-197. Seven Republicans bucked their party and voted with Democrats against the bill, while three Democrats voted for it. The Senate is not expected to take up the measure, and Obama promised Thursday to veto it, if it landed on his desk.
The question is whether the vote will grease the wheels for a deal on a government-funding measure next week. Some conservatives had wanted to tie Obama's action on immigration to a funding deal and Speaker of the House John Boehner and his allies in leadership hope the vote today will satisfy them, instead.
Leaders are considering a measure that would fund nearly all federal agencies except the Department of Homeland Security through September 2015 with DHS -- which handles immigration issues -- funded only until February. Conservatives have yet to rally around the plan, which will likely be unveiled early next week, just days before the Dec. 11 deadline to avert a government shutdown.
Tea party star Rep. Ted Yoho, a large-animal veterinarian from Florida, drafted the legislation. He explained it's meant to send Obama a message.
"This bill's not about border security, work visas, E-Verify or immigration reform," Yoho said on the House floor. "This is about the [administration] overstepping its bounds and unilaterally challenging the laws of this great nation of ours."
Yoho's bill says presidents cannot categorically exempt immigrants from being subject to deportations; such actions would be declared "null and void and without legal effect" under the legislation.
Even the bill's biggest supporters admit the vote is more about symbolism than substance.
When asked by a reporter whether Republicans were taking the Yoho bill seriously, Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) replied: "I don't even know if Ted [Yoho] is."
"I think people believe that it's a very symbolic gesture," Salmon added. "Everybody knows it's going to end up in Harry Reid's drawer anyway."
On the other end of the Capitol, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) also said the Yoho bill didn't go far enough to halt Obama's actions.
"Yoho has some strength to it," Sessions said. "It's not insignificant and his heart is right on the issue. But Congress should not fail to speak clearly on the presidential excess."
The White House issued a formal veto threat against the measure on Thursday, arguing that Yoho's legislation would "make the broken immigration system worse, not better."
"By attempting to restrict the Administration's ability to conduct national security and criminal background checks on undocumented immigrants, [the bill] would make the Nation's communities less safe," the White House statement said. "By attempting to make it more difficult for undocumented workers to register and pay taxes, the bill would hurt the Nation's economy as well."
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