House Spending Bill Ignores Dreamers; Senate Likely to Reject
Republican leaders stitched together enough votes to pass yet another stopgap federal spending bill late Thursday, but the legislation moves on to the U.S. Senate, where Democrats have the votes to stop it.
The legislation, passed 230-197 on a near-party line vote, keeps the federal government up and running just until February 16th.
Republicans offered a "lulu" -- on old New York expression for sweetener -- by including a provision a provision to restore the expired the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). States have been running short of money while the program was in limbo.
But they did nothing for the nation's 800,000 Dreamers, young undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. Democrats have insisted that Congress allow the Dreamers to remain in the U.S. to work, go to school and serve in the military.
U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., is one of 23 Republican House members who have called on Congress to pass a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) bill, similar to an Obama program that President Trump canceled.
Still, Reichert voted for the spending bill, citing the sweetener and saying it is Congress' duty to keep the government running. "This evening the House passed a funding bill that extends CHIP by six years -- the longest ever -- bringing relief to our children and families," Reichert said on Twitter.
But U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., senior member of Washington's House delegation, reacted to Republicans' bill with open disgust.
"They do nothing to address the immigration situation with DACA, young people who came to this country through no choice of their own who have lived their entire life here, who President Obama gave a pathway to legal status and then President Trump took away," said Smith.
"March 5 is their deadline, 800,000 people in this country, who were told that they could stay here and now are being told that they cant. There is bipartisan support for this fix. We should vote for it."
Such were goings-on in the "other" Washington on Thursday as to evoke famous words of the late New York Mets manager Casey Stengel during a 40-win season: "Can't anyone here play this game?"
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., part of the House Republican leadership, was tweeting up a storm, using CHIP as a selling point, and accusing Democrats of going to the brink and abandoning children's health.
"Children's health care should not be a partisan issue and not be a political game," McMorris Rodgers intoned.
In the early hours of Thursday, after watching "Fox & Friends," President Trump undercut Republican leaders "lulu." Tweeted Trump: "CHIP should be part of a long-term solution, not a 30-day or short term extension."
Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., a former technology executive and Microsoft vice president, said stop-gap spending would never survive in the private sector and is no way to run a government.
"Congress is once again kicking the can down the road, needlessly manufacturing another potential crisis because they (Republicans) wouldn't work with Democrats on a long-term, bipartisan solution," said DelBene.
"As a former CEO, I know firsthand you can't efficiently run a business for just weeks or months at a time, and the same is true for government . . . It's ludicrous that we waste so much time punting on these funding bills and leave American families and businesses with uncertainty."
The Washington delegation split on party lines, as it often has, with six Democrats voting against the stopgap spending measure, while four Republicans backed it.
The rancor is a sea change from the 1980s and early 1990s, when the state's delegation was a model of bipartisan cooperation in Congress.
The federal government is a big presence in Washington state, with military bases and federal land management, the Army Corps of Engineers and the cleanup of radioactive waste at the Hanford Reservation.
Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., ticked off those impacted on the Kitsap Peninsula and Olympic Peninsula, which he represents, who soldier on through stopgap spending measures and face potential government shutdowns.
"I opposed continued kicking of the can," said Kilmer, who had supported the first temporary spending plan.
"I stand with Naval Base Kitsap, the employees at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, the park rangers at Olympic National Park, the folks at the Forest Service managing our forests, and all the other federal workers in our region who depend on a long-term budget to do their jobs."
A longtime champion of both the Dreamers and the CHIP program, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., recoiled against the use of CHIP as a sweetener.
"I refuse to substitute one family's pain for another's gain," said Jayapal. "This is more than just a spending decision -- it is about the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. It is about the soul of our country. And our country deserves better."
The U.S. Senate will be the scene of much drama on Friday and through the weekend.
By: Joel Connelly
Source: Seattle Pi