Posted on 02/28/2015 11:55:53 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reads a letter she sent to her colleagues in Congress urging support for a DHS stopgap funding bill.(T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images))
February 28, 2015 House conservatives were told a shutdown-averting vote last night bought them a week reprieve to strategize a new fight against President Obama's immigration orders. Democrats believe they've been promised a vote on a full-year funding bill by next Friday.
A week from now, one of those groups is going to be very disappointed—and likely irate at the deception of its own leadership.
House Democrats voted en masse Friday for a one-week continuing resolution to fund the Department of Homeland Security, just hours after banding together to kill a three-week funding measure. Their votes switched at the urging of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who told members they would soon get a vote on the Senate-passed full funding bill.
"Your vote tonight will assure that we will vote for full funding next week," she wrote in a letter to colleagues. Just what is behind that assurance was left unsaid, but Democrats believe Pelosi extracted a promise from House Speaker John Boehner for a vote on full funding next week.
"I think what changed was there was a commitment given that if we passed the one-week extension that they would agree next week to bring up the Senate clean funding for DHS, so I believe there was an agreement that was made," said Democratic Rep. Janice Hahn. "We took [Republicans] at their word, so I hope it's true."
Multiple Democratic aides confirmed leadership had promised their bosses a vote on the Senate-passed full funding bill next week. Two senior Democratic staffers added that they had heard from both caucus leadership and the White House that Boehner had given them an agreement to allow that vote to take place.
Pelosi's office would not confirm or deny a deal with Boehner.
Reports of such an agreement were vehemently denied by the Speaker's office. "No such deal or promise was made," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. Of course, confirming an arrangement to give Democrats the clean vote they want would surely draw outrage from Boehner's right flank.
Whether one leader is lying to their caucus, or the two misunderstood each other, their respective caucuses went to vote Friday with vastly different ideas of what the next week would hold.
Even Democrats who were tight-lipped about whether Pelosi had told them of a deal said they had read—and believed—reports of the arrangement. Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Pelosi ally, was among many in the caucus who said the Minority Leader would not have switched course on short-term funding without earning the best deal she could. "This wouldn't have been accepted if that wasn't going to be the case," she said.
Still, Pelosi's strategy was not completely without Democratic skeptics. "She also assured Democrats who she whipped to vote no this afternoon that in the event of the failure of the three-week clean CR, Mr. Boehner would have 'no choice' but to bring up the Senate bill tonight. How'd that work out?" said Rep. Gerry Connolly. He called the promised deal "an awfully thin reed on which to decide to vote for a one-week extension after you whipped Democrats to vote against a three-week extension."
Meanwhile, Republicans, who have surely read those same reports, will be closely watching Boehner to see if he indeed brings a full bill to the floor. They were told the one-week extension would buy them time to force a conference with the Senate on the full-year funding bill, which they could then use to push for riders that would undermine Obama's immigration orders. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has already said his caucus will block any such efforts.
So... when do the Republicans start acting like this “lesser evil” we keep hearing about??
This is a tough one. I do not have trouble believing that Boehner would cave but if a Pelosi’s lips are moving she is generally lying.
All Bonehead does is cave.
He has a long history of caving.
Need I say more...
Can anything “clean” come from Congress?
Doesn’t it suck when a politician lies to you?
Is this the same loser as the ex-RNC Chairman that always wanted to "get jiggy wit it"?
Boner has already kicked the Hastert Rule to the curb so this is quite believable.
He git jiggly wit' it but only when Jonny tickle him jes' right.
This is what happens when you try to serve two masters. All this filly fallying around is just making the Republicans look more foolish.
From jump street Mitch MConnell should have pulled a Harry Reid, changed the filibuster rules, passed the House bill with the nuclear option and sent it to Barry’s desk. When he vetoed it then they could say “well both houses of Congress have passed legislation which defunds only Obama’s illegal amnesty which has been struck down by a Federal judge. It would be illegal for Congress to fund the amnesty at this point. The President has chosen to shut down the DHS”
A clean bill legitimizes ObOzO’s illegal immigration policy, even, a bill he vetoes. At this point it is now in the court’s court. If the courts let him get away with this, they can pack up and go away.
The President, even, the next, can do whatever he wants.
All funding legislation must originate in the House of Representatives.
But...Constitution, Schmonstitution. We're already a neo-dictatorship.
he really does look like a turtle
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