Republicans Seek to Avoid Shutdown by Delaying Immigration Fight

House Republican leaders are considering a way to avoid a politically risky government shutdown by punting an immigration fight with President Barack Obama into early next year.

The trouble is that a bloc of rank-and-file Republicans wants to handcuff Obama now, while he’s preparing to issue an executive order that may protect millions of undocumented immigrants from prosecution and deportation.

The Republicans do that by attaching language blocking the executive order to legislation that would keep the government open past Dec. 11. House Republican leaders are worried that will lead to a government shutdown and that they’ll be blamed for it.

So they’re exploring alternatives, including a plan that would keep the Department of Homeland Security operating only through the early part of next year while funding most of the rest of the government through Sept. 30.

“There are a lot of options being discussed,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, of Kentucky, told reporters today. “That’s one.”

The tactic means the final decision about immigration spending in the current fiscal year would fall to the next Congress, with Republicans in control of both chambers.

Next year offers better political timing for congressional Republicans because they will control both the House and the Senate. Then, they’ll have a far better chance of getting a bill bearing an immigration policy restriction to Obama’s desk and forcing him to choose whether to shutter the Homeland Security Department over it.

Obama Order

Obama has said he’ll issue an executive order to ease deportation policies. Most immigration tasks fall under the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services also have roles.

Under the partial omnibus option, Congress could add the defunding language to a bill next year knowing that a presidential veto would lead to a shutdown of only the agencies covered in the bill.

Jennifer Hing, a spokeswoman for the appropriations committee, said that while Republicans are talking about splitting the funding bill into two parts, it isn’t under active discussion by appropriators.