House and Senate leaders have sidestepped a promised legislative response to President Obama’s Executive Order on immigration. Now, they have their sights squarely on passing a last-minute funding measure ahead of the December 11 deadline, after which the federal government will not be funded.
But the price-tag of the proposed measure comes with some serious sticker shock, writes USA Today. In what looks to be an unprecedented spending bill, House Speaker Boehner has offered support for a $1 trillion package to fund the government for the next fiscal year.
Boehner said in response to conservative opposition, “I think we’ve laid out a reasonable course of action. This didn’t just happen overnight. I didn’t just wake up and have this idea in my head. We worked with an awful lot of our members, and frankly, I’m pretty comfortable with where we are.”
One key piece of the proposal, perhaps an olive branch to congressional conservatives, is that funding for the Department of Homeland Security has been offered separately in order to give House Republicans a little leverage in terms of how border enforcement will be paid for in 2015 in the face of what most expect to be an influx of illegal immigration in response to Obama’s Executive Order.
