Rep. Yoho: House Rejected Illegal Orders Because 'Enough Is Enough'
Thursday, 04 Dec 2014 09:20 PM
The House of Representatives voted to slap down President Barack Obama's executive action to help as many as 6 million illegal immigrants because "enough is enough," Rep. Ted Yoho told Newsmax on Thursday.
"The Constitution is something we need to abide by, or what in the heck are we here for?" asked the Florida Republican. He introduced the legislation on Nov. 20, the day Obama announced his unilateral actions.
"If he wants to legislate with a pen, send all the Congress home," Yoho said. "My goal is to take his ink out of his pen."
On a 219-197 vote, the House voted Thursday to block the immigration ordersObama announced last month that would delay deportations for and grant work permits to millions of illegals.
Though the vote seemed like a token protest that would not go any further, it allowed House Republicans to vent their outrage over Obama's orders without jeopardizing a spending bill under negotiation between the House and Senate that would keep the government running after next week.
"It is symbolic," Yoho acknowledged to Newsmax. "It's a symbolic move that passed the House — the people's House — that says that they want the president to abide by the Constitution.
"If we are a land that honors the rule of law, and if that rule of law is the Constitution, and that Constitution signifies freedom around the world, should we not all work to preserve that?
"I think, symbolically, it probably speaks more than a bill," he said.
Seven Republicans opposed the measure and three voted "present." Three Democrats backed it, while 190 voted against it.
"The president himself has stated that 'there's a limit on what [he] can do,'" said Florida GOP Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who objected to their colleague's bill. They issued a statement after the vote.
"Wecontinue to believe that the only legal and permanent solution is for Congress to pass legislation that will strengthen our borders, adhere to the rule of law, offer a humane solution to those living in the shadows, modernize our visa system, and bolster the economy," the legislators said.
Any stalemate over thefinancing bill could lead to a shutdown, which House Speaker John Boehner and other party leaders are seeking to avoid. Some Republicans wanted to attach the immigration language to the omnibus legislation, which could ignite a standoff with Senate Democrats.
The federal government runs out of money on Dec. 11. A 16-day partial shutdown in October 2013 over defunding Obamacare cost American taxpayers $1.4 billion.
House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, aKentucky Republican , said Thursday that he and his Senate counterpart, Democrat Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, planned on Friday to "sign off on the final deal" to finance most of the government through next September.
As for the House bill passed on Thursday, the Senate doesn't plan to take it up. The White House said the president would veto the measure if it reached his desk.
"Rather than deport students and separate families and make it harder for law enforcement to do its job, I just want the Congress to work with us to pass a commonsense law to fix that brokenimmigration system ," Obama said before the vote.
Boehner said Thursday's vote "made clear that we are rejecting his unilateral actions," especially since "the president thumbed his nose at the American people with his actions on immigration."
Rep. Tom Price, who will chair the House Budget Committee in the new Congress, cited the bill's effort at White House accountability.
"So long as the president and his allies in Congress continue to put their executive amnesty ahead of fidelity to the rule of law, we must and we will continue to seek to hold the administration accountable," the Georgia Republican said.
Boehner and other House leaders incorporated Yoho's bill into a two-part strategy to appease conservative Republicans ahead of next week's spending bill vote. The measure, however, would keep the Department of Homeland Security operating several months. The agency oversees immigration.
Republicans hope to revisit the DHS issue early next year when Republicans have more leverage in Congress.
Despite the strategy's objectives, however, Alex Nowrasteh, immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute, described Thursday's House move as "a meaningless vote on a meaningless bill."
"This is a bill that basically expresses displeasure," he told Newsmax. "It has no actions in it, really. It doesn't try to solve the problem.
"It's generally a bunch of people in Congress standing up and saying that we're unhappy — and that does nothing to solve the problems that are underlining this whole immigration mess."
The Associated Press and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
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© 2014 Newsmax. All rights reserved."The Constitution is something we need to abide by, or what in the heck are we here for?" asked the Florida Republican. He introduced the legislation on Nov. 20, the day Obama announced his unilateral actions.
"If he wants to legislate with a pen, send all the Congress home," Yoho said. "My goal is to take his ink out of his pen."
On a 219-197 vote, the House voted Thursday to block the immigration ordersObama announced last month that would delay deportations for and grant work permits to millions of illegals.
Though the vote seemed like a token protest that would not go any further, it allowed House Republicans to vent their outrage over Obama's orders without jeopardizing a spending bill under negotiation between the House and Senate that would keep the government running after next week.
"If we are a land that honors the rule of law, and if that rule of law is the Constitution, and that Constitution signifies freedom around the world, should we not all work to preserve that?
"I think, symbolically, it probably speaks more than a bill," he said.
Seven Republicans opposed the measure and three voted "present." Three Democrats backed it, while 190 voted against it.
"The president himself has stated that 'there's a limit on what [he] can do,'" said Florida GOP Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who objected to their colleague's bill. They issued a statement after the vote.
"We
Any stalemate over the
House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, a
As for the House bill passed on Thursday, the Senate doesn't plan to take it up. The White House said the president would veto the measure if it reached his desk.
"Rather than deport students and separate families and make it harder for law enforcement to do its job, I just want the Congress to work with us to pass a commonsense law to fix that broken
Boehner said Thursday's vote "made clear that we are rejecting his unilateral actions," especially since "the president thumbed his nose at the American people with his actions on immigration."
Rep. Tom Price, who will chair the House Budget Committee in the new Congress, cited the bill's effort at White House accountability.
"So long as the president and his allies in Congress continue to put their executive amnesty ahead of fidelity to the rule of law, we must and we will continue to seek to hold the administration accountable," the Georgia Republican said.
Boehner and other House leaders incorporated Yoho's bill into a two-part strategy to appease conservative Republicans ahead of next week's spending bill vote. The measure, however, would keep the Department of Homeland Security operating several months. The agency oversees immigration.
Despite the strategy's objectives, however, Alex Nowrasteh, immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute, described Thursday's House move as "a meaningless vote on a meaningless bill."
"This is a bill that basically expresses displeasure," he told Newsmax. "It has no actions in it, really. It doesn't try to solve the problem.
"It's generally a bunch of people in Congress standing up and saying that we're unhappy — and that does nothing to solve the problems that are underlining this whole immigration mess."
The Associated Press and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
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