As most of you probably know, the House has now passed a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security which completely defunds and blocks the President’s executive amnesty. At this point, my expectation is that the Senate bring it up as quickly as possible and either pass or amend it well in advance of the deadline. By doing so, Congress can dispense with shutdown hysterics. I don’t anticipate that the Senate will necessarily agree with our bill exactly as written (and certainly not the President), but these deliberations need to get moving now – and not at the eleventh hour. The House has acted well in advance of the DHS funding deadline. If you don’t see the Senate move quickly, then you can bet there are shutdown leverage antics on the horizon.
Regardless of how one feels about the President’s action (and people feel passionately on both sides), there is no reason why this bill should get left till the last second and rushed through. The country doesn’t need the hysterics that will accompany it and the country doesn’t need the last minute items that will get slipped into the bill amidst the chaos. It’s important to remember, after all, that the immigration provision in the DHS funding bill isn’t the only thing of consequence in there… the entire budget for DHS is in there. We need to think through all of this – including the amnesty piece – very carefully.
As a country and as a government, we need to have these debates, but I think we should have the debates deliberately and out in the open. We have that opportunity now. The House has made its argument. I hope the Senate doesn’t delay in making theirs.
U.S. Rep. Rich Nugent represents The Villages in Congress.