King: How Can Members Vote to Fund Executive Amnesty and Take Oath to Uphold Constitution?

King: How Can Members Vote to Fund Executive Amnesty and Take Oath to Uphold Constitution?

on Tue, 2 Dec 2014

There is a sentiment among some conservative lawmakers that they cannot vote to allow any funding for president Obama’s executive amnesty, Rep. Steve King explained to Breitbart News Tuesday. 

“I really think there is a core position that is forming among conservatives that says ‘I will not vote to fund the president’s unconstitutional, lawless act,’” King said as he left a House Judiciary hearing on Obama’s executive actions. 

House GOP leaders Tuesday morning presented members with the idea of a government funding strategy — dubbed a "cromnibus" — that would fund the majority of the government through September 2015 but fund the Department of Homeland Security for only a short amount of time, so the newly-elected Congress can decide how to handle it early next year. 

According to King, even a short-term funding of immigration related services, largely enacting Obama’s executive orders for the time being, would be too much. 

“We take an oath to uphold the Constitution and we’ll be asked to take another oath as early as January 6. So how do you vote to fund the president’s lawlessness and then about three weeks later step out on the floor of Congress and take an oath to uphold the Constitution, how do you go home and say, 'I took my oath, I kept my oath, and I’m going to take it again?” he asked. 

King added that there are a number of lawmakers who likely feel the same way. 

“It’s kind of a yes or no thing where I stand,” he said. “Either you’re going to fund his lawless act or your not. So I don’t have a count and I don’t have my own judgement. I just have other members that have been talked in the term of several dozen.”

Meanwhile on the Senate side, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Tuesday he could support the House leadership’s strategy. He told The Hill newspaper: “That would be a big accomplishment if we could get a bill over here that would fund all the appropriations subcommittees except for one.”

Senate conservatives, including Rep. King, are pushing back against the idea of any funding for executive amnesty and called for a bill that thwarts the orders.

“A funding bill that blocks amnesty is the best, smartest way to do this, and I hope they realize this in the first go around before they send a bill to the Harry Reid Senate that funds amnesty,” Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) said. “Make no mistake, sending a bill to the Senate without first making an attempt to include defund language is telling the American people that you support Obama’s executive amnesty. That would be a slap in the face to the voters who sent a message last month by electing Republican majorities in Congress.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) added the current Republican plan is not enough.

“The executive amnesty language is substantially weaker than the language the House adopted this summer, and does not reject the central tenets of the President’s plan: work permits, Social Security, and Medicare to 5 million illegal immigrants—reducing wages, jobs, and benefits for Americans.” Sessions said going on to argue that Congress “must respond to the President’s unlawful action by funding the government but not funding illegal amnesty.”