Following a Huffington Post report that suggested House Speaker (R-Wis.) expected a DACA fix in the spending omnibus, House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said she wants a separate solution on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program before a Dec. 8 deadline for an omnibus spending package.
“My hope would be that DACA would be done before then,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi had earlier threatened that Democrats would vote against spending bills, which would lead to a government shutdown in December if they did not include a solution for DACA recipients, also called dreamers.
President Trump phased out the program which was enacted during the Obama regime in 2012 to protect over 800,000 beneficiaries who were brought to the US illegally as children from deportation, and gave Congress a six month period to find an alternative fix.
Democrats, however, said they expect a solution to DACA before the spending bill, saying they would vote against a spending measure if a solution had not been reached.
“I will not vote for an end-of-year spending bill until we are clear about what we are going to do to protect and take care of our DACA young people in this country,” California Sen. Kamala Harris (D) said on Wednesday.
House Minority Whip, Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told The Hill that he had hopes of a solution before the deadline, but the threat of a shutdown loomed.
“I hope we don’t get there,” he said, but added that, “there is a chance, yeah.”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said he thought Democrats and Republicans would find solutions to both DACA and ObamaCare subsidy payments, which President Trump said he would not continue to pay.
“I think those are both high likelihood for being resolved between now and year-end. I do,” Kaine said.
The Huffington Post report disclosed Ryan said he did not expect the subsidy payments to be included in the spending deal.
“I think for many members in our caucus there will be red lines, and one of them probably will be DACA. So the issue is, if they need our votes, and if we’re going to be able to provide enough votes, they’re going to need to be very cooperative in negotiating with us,” said Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), the ranking member on the House Budget Committee.
Leave a reply