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Category: Immigration

Progress and Potential Stumbling Blocks Seen on FY2019 Spending

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While the House is now enjoying its five-week long August recess, the Senate still remains in session this week and appears to be on track to pass a four-bill spending package by Friday. The measure will include Senate versions of two House-passed bills– Interior and Financial Services– as well as the Agriculture and Transportation-Housing Urban Development bills.  If the Senate approves the four-bill vehicle, it will have cleared seven of the 12 spending bills for FY2019, while the House has adopted six to date.

While each chamber continues to make progress on its own versions of bills, potential stumbling blocks to bills being signed into law remain.  For example, while the two chambers are currently trying to reach an agreement on an already-adopted package of three bills– Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs– progress has been halted because the two sides cannot agree on the amount of money that is available for each bill.

In addition, President Trump earlier this week tweeted that he would advocate for a government shutdown if he does not get what he wants on “border security.”  This comes after Republican Congressional leaders earlier stated that they would not support such a move.  It remains unclear what the president ultimately wants.

Second Spending Package Clears House

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After three days of debating amendments on the floor, the House passed this morning a spending package that includes the FY2019 Interior and Financial Services appropriations bills.  This morning’s action means that half of the 12 annual spending bills have now cleared the House.

On a related note, the last of the House appropriations bills, the Homeland Security funding bill, is scheduled to be marked up in subcommittee today.  The markup is expected to be contentious as a result of a number of controversies, such as those surrounding family separations at the border and the Administration’s push for funding for a border wall.

 

Labor-HHS Spending Bill Clears House Committee

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After an all-day markup, the FY2019 House Labor-HHS-Education bill was cleared by the Appropriations Committee last night. The committee’s adoption of the bill means that 11 of the 12 spending bills have cleared the House Appropriations Committee; the Senate committee has cleared all of its bills.

The 13-hour markup was contentious at times, with heated debates on a number of issues, including child separation.  Of the roughly 50 amendments offered and debated during the session, a significant number of them focused on child separation practices at the border.

Although the bill has now cleared the committee process, it is unclear at this point whether it will see floor action in the near future.

A copy of the bill is available here and the accompanying report is available here.

 

 

Immigration Stalled Again

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The Senate on Thursday effectively failed to move forward with any of four immigration proposals put forward today. This included a Republican proposal backed by President Donald Trump that would grant 1.8 million “Dreamers” a path to citizenship and provide $25 billion for a border wall and security improvements.

The action came on a 39-60 vote to limit debate on an amendment by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), to an unrelated bill (HR 2579) related to the Administration’s “Four Pillars” proposal  Sixty votes were needed to invoke cloture.

Grassley’s proposal mirrored Trump’s framework to provide a path to citizenship for Dreamers brought to the United States as children in exchange for border security funding. It would also end family-based immigration or “chain migration” and phase out a diversity lottery program. Democrats considered the restrictions on family-based immigration a nonstarter.

The Senate earlier rejected three other immigration proposals, including a bipartisan deal by 16 mostly centrist Senators, calling themselves the “Common Sense Caucus,” that Trump threatened to veto because it did not do enough to limit family-based immigration.

All amendments failed this afternoon.

There was no clear path forward in the House for any of these proposals.

Senate Set to Begin DACA Debate This Week

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The Senate is expected to kick off its debate on DACA this week, perhaps as early as this evening.  As a way to reopen the government after the last government shutdown in January, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made a commitment to allow the Senate to start debate on possible ways forward on the DACA situation if a solution had not been found by February 8.