Representative Steve King. (file photo)
Iowa Congressman Steve King says he met with fellow House Republicans on Tuesday to discuss possible action on President Obama’s executive order on immigration. King says House GOP members strategized on options to deal with what King calls the “unconstitutional actions” of the president.
“I walk away from that disappointed to some degree, a significant degree, because I do not detect enough will inside that conference to stand up and defend the Constitution,” King says. “Yes, they want to. Nobody in our conference will say that the president acted in a lawful or constitutional way, I don’t think anybody there believes it.”
King says many of his colleagues want to wait until January to act when Republicans will control both chambers of Congress. He says the power of the purse should be used to prevent the president’s order from taking effect. “Two-hundred-and-eighteen members of the House of Representatives with resolve can block any spending by the federal government and that’s what we need to do,” King says. “We need to fund everything prudently, just say, ‘Mr. President, you didn’t need the money to carry out your lawless, unconstitutional executive amnesty in the last year’s appropriation bill and you’re not going to have it in this one either.”
King says President Obama’s executive order creates serious problems for the country. “This is a constitutional crisis that the president has thrown us in over an immigration issue and we must defend the constitution and the legislative authority of the United States Congress,” King says. “If not, what is the limitation on the president? Can he appropriate money? Can he ignore all laws he wants to ignore? Can he write new laws? Yes, he’s done essentially all of those things.”
House Speaker John Boehner is urging Republicans to pass a long-term spending plan next week to avoid a government shutdown and wait for a budget battle when the 2015 Congress convenes. King would prefer to see money for the Department of Human Services be withheld to prevent the immigration reforms from being implemented.
(Reporting by Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)