Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), spirit animal of the shutdown battle in 2013 over defunding Obamacare, is now getting pressure from House conservatives to fight harder on immigration legislation in the Senate.
Per the Washington Examiner’s Susan Ferrechio, the House’s far right faction thinks Cruz and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) need to better utilize the Senate’s procedural rules that allow a single Senate to act like an anvil on pending legislation.
GOP members are particularly interested in seeing the bill the House passed to defund President Barack Obama’s executive action delaying deportation advance in the upper chamber. The GOP lacks a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
So what, say House conservatives. “It’s high time that Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and others decide to start fighting and using the procedural rules in the Senate,” said Representative Raul Labrador (R-ID). “They also have a responsibility in the Senate to make sure those bills pass.”
However, doing so would provoke yet another funding showdown, this time over the Department of Homeland Security’s funding, which is set to run out in five days. The last brinksmanship over government funding was politically costly for Republicans, and earned Cruz a number of enemies within his own party.
So what, say House conservatives. “There is no way to avoid what is coming on the 27th,” Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) told the Examiner. “We had better stand firm.”
[h/t Washington Examiner]
[Image via Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com]