Four North Carolina Republican House members were among a group of conservatives who bucked their party’s leadership by refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless restrictions were placed on President Barack Obama’s immigration orders.
The drama capped weeks of sniping between the House and Senate over Republican efforts to eliminate the president’s executive order last fall that temporarily lifted the threat of deportation for more than 4 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally.
Senate Democrats repeatedly blocked Republicans’ efforts to undo the policy and Senate Republicans finally gave up the fight and voted last week to fund Homeland Security without the restrictions. After a night of political brinkmanship in the House last Friday, which ended in an 11th hour stop-gap funding measure, the House tried to settle the issue Tuesday.
By a vote of 257-167, it passed the DHS funding bill, stripped of the provisions against Obama’s immigration order, and over the sharp objections of some conservatives. It now goes to the president for his signature.
The four North Carolina lawmakers who opposed the latest effort Tuesday had voted on Friday against a one-week extension of DHS funding. If their side had prevailed, the agency would have gone into a partial shutdown at midnight Friday, putting certain programs and on hold and causing many employees of the agency, which oversees the Secret Service, the Border Patrol, the Transportation Security Administration and other divisions to work without pay.
One of the lawmakers, Rep. Walter Jones of Farmville, said in an interview Tuesday that a shutdown would have been necessary in order to object to what he said was an overstepping by the president of his constitutional authority.
“I don’t think any of us who voted this way, that our intent was to shut down the government, Jones said. “But if that’s the end result, so be it. We’ve got to take a stand.”
Jones also opposed President George W. Bush on the Iraq war. He voted against Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, in January. He also has objected to Democratic and Republican presidents’ requests to raise the debt ceiling.
“Instead of taking a stand saying we think you have overstepped your responsibilities, we seem to cave in,” Jones said. “And I think this is exactly what the leadership is doing again.”
In a letter last month to Boehner and other House leaders, Jones and 29 other Republicans argued that Congress should not leave the matter to the courts, were the immigration order now awaits a ruling on its legality.
“District Court rulings can be overturned, but the power of the purse is absolute,” they wrote.
Judge Andrew Hanen of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Texas in February ruled in favor of Texas and other states that challenged the immigration orders. The administration filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. The appeals process could take months.
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, who argued in favor of the funding bill on Tuesday before the vote, said that the courts were the right place to determine what is or isn’t constitutional. He also said that Senate rules blocked Republicans; they have 54 members in the Senate, but need 60 votes to pass most measures.
The other three North Carolina Republican lawmakers who voted against the one-week extension of DHS funding last week, and against the funding bill Tuesday were Reps. Richard Hudson of Concord, Mark Meadows of Glenville and Mark Walker of Greensboro.
Hudson explained his vote against the extension last week in a Facebook post on Sunday by saying it did “nothing to stop President Obama’s illegal executive amnesty.” In his weekly newsletter, he added that what was at stake was not just immigration but also “defending the Constitution.” He did not mention shutting down parts of DHS.
“By bypassing Congress to unilaterally rewrite our immigration laws, President Obama is ignoring the will of the American people and putting the constitutional foundation of our nation at risk,” Hudson wrote, adding: “Folks, I don’t work for the president or Republican leadership – I work for you.”
He declined to be interviewed on Tuesday, but said in a statement: “I refuse to vote to legitimize the president’s illegal actions and grant amnesty and hard-earned tax dollars to illegal immigrants.”
Meadows was one of nine founding member of the conservative Freedom Caucus in January. The House leadership rejected three of its suggestions on the immigration orders. Meadows didn’t respond to a question about why he voted against the stopgap measure Friday night that would have averted a partial shutdown.
His spokeswoman, Alyssa Farah, said that he could not vote for the full funding measure because it “funded the president’s unconstitutional executive action.”
Walker, who was elected in the 6th Congressional District after Rep. Howard Coble retired, said in a statement Tuesday that the outcome "further capitulates to these obstructionists in the Senate..." He said "too many" House members were "willing to sacrifice the provisions defunding the president’s executive actions in order to keep the Department of Homeland Security open. While I don’t agree with their decision, I can understand the concern many members have voiced regarding the security threat posed by closing or compromising DHS at this critical hour."
The final move in the fight over the immigration orders came on Monday night, when Senate Democrats blocked a measure that would have required negotiations over differences in the House and Senate bills. The House had passed a measure that funded the department, but withheld money to implement the president’s orders.
The maneuvers left Boehner with three choices: a shutdown of DHS, a bill with no restrictions, or another temporary measure.
North Carolina Republican Reps. George Holding, David Rouzer and Virginia Foxx also opposed the DHS funding bill Tuesday.
North Carolina Republican Reps. Renee Ellmers, Robert Pittenger and Patrick McHenry were among the 75 Republicans who voted to fund the agency without imposing the restrictions on Obama’s immigration order. They joined 182 Democrats voting in favor of it, including North Carolina Reps. David Price, G.K. Butterfield and Alma Adams.
Price, who helped negotiate the funding bill as ranking member of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee last year, said he was not surprised the full funding bill passed with wide bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate.
“I am pleased that its responsible funding decisions will now become law, providing critical support for national security priorities like White House security, first responder and anti-terror grants, drug and human trafficking interdiction, and immigration enforcement,” Price said in a statement. “This shutdown controversy, while great political theater, was completely unnecessary and avoidable.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story wrongly identified Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, in the 22nd paragraph, and also said that Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., did not respond to a request for a comment, which he subsequently did.