A Wednesday afternoon session of the House Rules Committee remains the final hurdle for Speaker Boehner’s 1,600 page, $1.1 trillion “CR-Omnibus” budget bill before a scheduled vote on the floor of the House tomorrow. But one of the most powerful conservative grassroots organizations in the country is trying to turn up the heat on the House Republican leadership.
The Tea Party Patriots are demanding that “the House Rules Committee block funding for executive amnesty” contained in the bill. If the committee fails to do so, the group said, “the bill should be defeated.”
“If the Rules Committee won’t allow the proper amendments, the Rule should be taken down; if the necessary language blocking funding for executive amnesty is not added, the bill should be defeated,” Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, said in a statement. Martin urged “fellow concerned citizens . . . I to get in touch with your Member of Congress and demand it.”
The day after the Republican Party’s sweeping electoral victory last month, Martin noted that: “The Republicans have been given the ball. It’s up to them to show that they deserve it.”
On Wednesday, Martin made clear that, so far, the Republicans don’t deserve the ball.
“I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that it’s taken the Republicans all of 35 days to drop that ball in spectacularly disappointing fashion,” Martin said in a released statement.
The Republican leaderships’ $1.1 trillion CR-Omnibus bill, Martin said, had been “dropped under the cover of darkness.” It had been “created behind closed doors,” and as a result “congressmen won’t even have time to read [it before Thursday’s currently scheduled vote on the floor of the House].”
“Make no mistake,” Martin said, “this bill DOES fund Obama’s executive amnesty, and so much more.”
“We’ve not seen a ‘Lame Duck Congress’ these last several days,” Martin added. “We’ve seen an ‘All Powerful, Unaccountable American Nightmare.'”
Martin was highly critical of the entire Republican House leadership, singling out Speaker Boehner for specific criticsm.
“Speaker Boehner, who promised to fight executive amnesty ‘tooth and nail,’ won’t even allow amendments to this mammoth bill on the floor,” Martin said. “Shame on him. Shame on them all,” Martin said of Boehner and the Republican House leadership.
The House Rules Committee, chaired by Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX), is scheduled to meet at 3 pm eastern on Wednesday to consider the CR-Omnibus bill, which would fund almost the entire federal government through the end of fiscal year 2015.
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