Republican House members from Missouri are blasting their state’s Democratic Senator, Claire McCaskill, for standing with liberals Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid by filibustering the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that blocks funding for President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty.
“On behalf of the people of Missouri, we respectfully request that you reconsider your recent vote to block full and open debate on the House-passed bill to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), H.R. 240 the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2015,” Missouri GOP Reps. Sam Graves, Ann Wagner, Jason Smith, Vicky Hartzler and Blaine Luetkemeyer wrote to Sen. McCaskill on Tuesday. “President Obama’s executive actions on immigration represent an attempt by the President to unilaterally rewrite our nation’s immigration laws. In response to these unconstitutional actions, the House approved the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill in January, funding this crucial agency while prohibiting funding for President Obama’s unconstitutional executive actions on immigration.”
McCaskill has personally come out in public opposition to Obama’s executive amnesty, a position she has flip-flopped from by voting with Schumer’s and Reid’s filibuster.
“Our immigration system is broken, and I support a comprehensive plan to fix it, but executive orders aren’t the way to do it,” McCaskill said in November, according to local Missouri news outlet KOLR10 News.
The system can only be truly fixed through legislation by Congress. The Senate’s comprehensive plan got overwhelming bipartisan approval, and Republicans in the U.S. House have sat on their hands for a year-and-a-half, refusing to even consider that bill. They should quit stalling, get to work, and do their jobs—debate the comprehensive plan that passed the Senate with a two-thirds margin.
The Republican House members from Missouri are reminding her of her opposition to Obama’s amnesty, actually quoting her in the letter and noting that she needs to follow through and vote her publicly-stated policy position.
“Many other Democratic Senators have also publicly stated that they oppose the President’s unilateral actions,” they wrote. “We urge you to stop protecting the President’s unconstitutional actions, and vote to fund a Department tasked with keeping Americans safe.”
They also note that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has offered an open amendment process should she decide she has any differences with the House-passed DHS funding bill.
“We recognize that you may have disagreements with the House-passed bill; however, as elected representatives we believe those differences should be resolved by the Democratic process,” they wrote to McCaskill. “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has offered an agreement to Senate Democrats for an equitable amendment process. We encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to offer constructive ideas that improve the underlying bill, and protect America’s national security.”
The Missouri Republicans join Republicans in Indiana, Montana, and West Virginia in pressuring their Democratic senators to break from Schumer’s and Reid’s clutches to stand up for American workers over illegal aliens in the effort to stop Obama’s plans to grant amnesty—and work permits—to millions of illegal aliens.
In interviews with Breitbart News, Reps. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) and Alex Mooney (R-WV) called on their states Democratic senators, Jon Tester and Joe Manchin respectively, to stop helping liberal Democrats Schumer and Reid block the House-passed bill from getting to the floor. All of Indiana’s Republican House members wrote a similar letter to Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), their state’s Democratic senator, pressuring him to stop standing with Schumer, Reid, Obama and illegal aliens over their state’s constituents.
No Democratic senator has broken yet, but if Republicans stand strong as more of a focus comes onto this issue—especially after a federal court ruling blocked Obama’s amnesty as potentially illegal—they just might, especially since so many Democrats have issued public statements opposing Obama’s actions.
That will only work if Republicans stay in line. On Wednesday Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) seemed to step out of line. He contradicted House and Senate GOP leaders and seemed to call for a DHS funding bill that doesn’t block Obama’s executive amnesty. Rubio’s office has since somewhat clarified the senator’s position, and walked it back a little bit.
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