By Kristina Peterson, Laura Meckler and Siobhan Hughes
WASHINGTON -- House GOP leaders worked Wednesday to find the
votes among wary Republicans for a one-month spending bill to avert
a partial government shutdown this weekend, while negotiations on
immigration continued amid competing visions for a deal.
The government's funding expires at 12:01 a.m. Saturday and
House GOP leaders plan to bring to the floor Thursday a short-term
spending bill to keep the government running through Feb. 16. But
the measure faces hurdles in both chambers of Congress and little
time to clear them.
In the House, many Republicans are frustrated that Congress has
funded the government through stopgap spending bills since October
without giving the military more money and flexibility. The
chairman of the House Freedom Caucus bloc said that the opposition
from many in his group of three dozen conservatives could derail
the monthlong spending bill.
Still, many House Republicans expected the short-term bill would
ultimately pass the House this week, potentially after some
nail-biting moments of suspense.
"We always get there," said Rep. Frank Lucas (R., Okla.), before
adding, "sometimes some of my friends want to make it more exciting
than it has to be."
Meanwhile in the Senate, Democrats have been trying to use their
leverage on the spending bill to secure an agreement providing
legal protections for Dreamers, young undocumented immigrants
brought to the U.S. by their parents. Spending bills need 60 votes
to pass the Senate, where Republicans hold only 51 seats.
Mr. Trump ended the Obama-era program shielding the Dreamers
from deportation in September, giving Congress until March 5 to
negotiate a replacement to the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program, or DACA.
Democrats are reluctant to give up their leverage on a two-year
budget deal without having secured an immigration agreement first.
But Senate Democrats, particularly those up for re-election this
year, may not want to risk shuttering the government in a year when
control of the Senate is up for grabs.
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) and Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) are
expected to introduce bipartisan legislation Wednesday addressing
the four topics Mr. Trump and lawmakers agreed to focus on. A key
question is how many Republicans will be willing to sign on to the
bill.
The Durbin-Graham bill would provide legalization for the
Dreamers, with a 10-to-12-year path to citizenship. They wouldn't
be allowed to sponsor their parents for green cards, but their
parents would be eligible for three-year, renewable work
permits.
The bill offers about $1.6 billion in funding for a border fence
along the Mexican border, the amount Mr. Trump requested for this
fiscal year, plus $1 billion for other border security.
It also includes an end to the diversity visa lottery, which
randomly awards 50,000 green cards to would-be immigrants from
underrepresented countries. Those visas would be used for other
immigrants, including those losing Temporary Protected Status, as
well as a new merit-based system directed at countries that are
underrepresented in visa allocation. The bill would impose a modest
limit on green card holders to sponsor adult children for
immigration to the U.S.
But the path ahead for their bill was unclear. Mr. Trump
rejected their proposal last week, in a contentious meeting in
which he dismissed "shithole countries" in Africa, upending
negotiations and diminishing prospects of reaching a bipartisan
deal before the spending deadline. This week the White House
boosted its demand for border security funding above the $1.6
billion the administration had previously requested for this fiscal
year.
Other groups of lawmakers meeting to hash out an immigration
deal, including one of four congressional No. 2 leaders, could tap
elements of the Durbin-Graham bill, the product of four months of
intense bipartisan discussions.
Republican leaders have sought to disentangle the spending and
immigration fights.
"Good-faith negotiations are under way and to push that aside
and try and jeopardize funding for things like [children's health
insurance] and our military to me makes no sense," House Speaker
Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) told reporters Wednesday.
In the House, Republicans said support was growing for a far
more conservative proposal from GOP Reps. Bob Goodlatte of
Virginia, Raul Labrador of Idaho, Michael McCaul of Texas and
Martha McSally of Arizona that extends well beyond the four topics
to which the Senate bipartisan bill is limited.
The Goodlatte bill would provide $30 billion to build a wall
along the Mexico border and tighten border security, crack down on
so-called sanctuary cities that don't cooperate with federal
immigration enforcement, and require employers to use E-Verify,
which allows them to check prospective workers' immigration
status.
It would also provide Dreamers three years of renewable legal
status but not green cards or a path to citizenship.
"That's getting more traction," said Rep. Warren Davidson (R.,
Ohio), a member of the Freedom Caucus who said he was currently
undecided whether to support the one-month spending bill.
Many conservatives have started urging GOP leaders to bring the
Goodlatte bill up for a vote, but GOP aides believe it could fail,
diminishing House Republicans' leverage in the immigration
negotiations. The Goodlatte bill goes much further than Democrats
want on wall funding and other provisions, dooming its prospects in
the Senate.
Mr. Ryan told House Republicans Wednesday morning that they
would start "listening sessions" for GOP lawmakers to learn more
about the bill. That would enable Republicans to continue
discussions about the bill without committing to a potentially
embarrassing vote this week.
In a bid to build support for the one-month spending bill, GOP
leaders included a six-year reauthorization of the Children's
Health Insurance Program, a one-year suspension in the
health-insurance tax and a two-year suspension of both the
medical-device tax and the Cadillac tax, a levy on generous
employer plans.
House Republicans predicted that Democrats would find it hard to
vote against a reauthorization of the popular children's health
program, but Democratic leaders were urging their rank-and-file
members to oppose the bill.
Republicans are "just trying to box in our members," said Rep.
John Yarmuth of Kentucky, the top Democrat on the House Budget
Committee. "Certainly it's a ploy." Mr. Yarmuth said he would
oppose the spending bill and expected many Democrats to join
him.
Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com, Laura
Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com and Siobhan Hughes at
siobhan.hughes@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 17, 2018 13:03 ET (18:03 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.