WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Republicans will have a better idea of what their next steps will be on the border crisis by the end of the week, House Speaker John Boehner told reporters Tuesday.
“We’re awaiting Chairman Hal Rogers and the Appropriations Committee to scrub the president’s request,” he said when asked about the GOP’s response to the President’s $3.7 billion supplemental budget request to deals with the border crisis.
“I expect by the end of this week we should have some answers. Also waiting to hear from our border working group,” Boehner continued. “Kay Granger (R-TX) and a number of members of the border working group were in Guatemala and Honduras over the weekend. And hopefully by the end of the week we’ll have a better idea of how we might move ahead.”
Boehner would not reveal his own ideas on what should be done to alleviate the border situation, but did say, “I’ve got lots of them.”
The border working group House Speaker Boehner appointed to consider solutions to the ongoing crisis of unaccompanied minors and family units illegally entering the U.S. through the southern border briefed the House GOP Conference on some of their finding Tuesday morning.
After briefing their colleagues the group subsequently met with Department of Homeland Security Sec. Jeh Johnson Tuesday.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy also deferred to the working group when asked if he will bring up Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s bill to deal with the crisis next week.
“I think we’ll wait until the task force comes back,” McCarthy said but noted that the legislation has bipartisan support and deals with something that must be fixed.
The border group is expected to be issuing its recommendations Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning.