Conservative group: Support for spending bill a vote for ‘amnesty’

The conservative immigration group NumbersUSA says it will include an upcoming spending bill on its legislative scorecard and consider it a vote for “amnesty” unless it specifically defunds President Obama’s executive action on immigration.

“Congress must insist that language to prohibit any fees or appropriations from being used to carry out the illegal Obama amnesty be applied to the entire package,” NumbersUSA, which wants to reduce immigration levels, said in a statement.

{mosads}“It should be obvious to all Members, as it is to Americans, that Congress cannot in good faith fund an unconstitutional act for any period of time.”

Lawmakers must pass the bill to prevent a government shutdown on Oct. 12. Efforts to round up support, though, have been complicated by Obama’s move to defer deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants. Conservatives want the funding bill to limit the president’s actions, which they see as executive overreach. 

The GOP is expected to introduce what’s being called a “cromnibus” package, that includes an omnibus funding government through September 2015 and a continuing resolution (CR), or a short-term measure funding the Department of Homeland Security. That way, a Republican-majority-led Congress could take up immigration with significantly more leverage next year.

But that strategy doesn’t jib with NumbersUSA, which said it will encourage members to vote against the “cromnibus” unless it explicitly defunds the executive order.

The conservative group Heritage Action made a similar threat last week.

The House last week passed a bill from Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) that would bar the administration from implementing Obama’s action. The Democratic-Senate, though, will not take up the measure.

Heritage Action denounced that bill as “purely symbolic.”