White House ‘Gratified’ That Republicans Are Not Blocking Amnesty

The White House is “gratified” that Republicans aren’t trying to block President Obama’s election actions on immigration reform in the multi-layered “cromnibus” bill released by the House of Representatives.

During the White House press briefing on Wednesday, Press Secretary Josh Earnest reminded reporters that Republicans had made Obama’s executive action “a priority” but failed to include any effort to block it in the bill.

“Republicans had identified as their priority to try to undermine the president’s effort to reform our broken immigration system using executive actions and to cut carbon pollution,” Earnest said. “Based on a cursory review of that agreement it doesn’t appear that Republicans were successful in that effort, so that’s certainly something that we’re gratified by.”

Earnest reminded reporters that the bill was always going to be a compromise for both Republicans and Democrats, but that the staff in the White House would have to review the full bill before President Obama would sign it.

He added that Obama “does have an option” to veto the legislation if he saw fit. “As always, we believe that Democrats should vote their conscience,” he concluded.