Pelosi: GOP On Their Own In Omnibus Vote

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned GOP leaders in the House that if they plan to vote on a $1 trillion omnibus bill this week, they can do it without the support of House Democrats.

“I hope they have the votes for it, because if they don’t’, they won’t be getting any cooperation from us,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press briefing. 

House Republican leaders are expected to bring the omnibus to the floor without Democratic support. This could be an uphill battle for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) who has had trouble winning the votes of some rank-and-file Republicans on a number of occasions throughout the year. 

With the end of the week fast approaching, the threat of yet another government shutdown looms over Congress. One option that would essentially serve as Plan B for Congress is the potential for passing a short-term continuing resolution that would keep the government funded into next week, giving the legislative body more time to work out their differences with the current payroll package.

Pelosi said that a shutdown was, in fact, possible but that there were many avenues available that would work to avoid it. 

“It’s only a decision that Republicans have to make that they want to avoid a shutdown by coming to the table and coming to their sense about what is fair to get the job done, to get results for the American people, instead of creating a crisis,” Pelosi said. 

Pelosi stood by the White House’s threat to veto the bill, saying “our caucus supports the president if he wants to veto the bill because of some of the provisions that are in there. We won’t be voting for a bill that has them.”

“It’s like someone saying to her fiancé, ‘Yes, I’ll finally marry you, but I can only do that on Feb. 30,’” Pelosi said. “That day is never coming, nor is the day coming when the president will sign the that Republicans passed.” 

Payroll Tax Battle Heads To Senate

House Republicans were successful in passing legislation Tuesday that would extend payroll-tax cuts to 2013 and would expedite a White House decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. 

The 234-193 vote sends the Republican-crafted bill to Senate Democrats who have arduously opposed the bill and have already signaled the bill would be dead-on-arrival. 

Following the House vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took immediate action and called for a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Republicans’ top senator, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), told Reid he needed more time to organize his conference. Reid, in turn, criticized McConnell for blocking a Senate vote on the House’s payroll package. 

A vote in the upper chamber, however, will likely be the House-passed bill’s demise. Senate Democrats said that they will continue to pursue a surtax on millionaires as a pay-for for the payroll-tax holiday, a notion Republicans have argued is counter-intuitive. 

Meanwhile, the White House, which threatened to veto the bill Tuesday, released a statement following the House vote that labeled Republicans as ideologues practicing gamesmanship. 

“This Congress needs to do its job and stop the tax hike that’s scheduled to affect 160 million Americans in 18 days,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. “This is not a time for Washington Republicans to score political points against the President.  It’s not a time to refight old ideological battles.”

Moving forward, Congress must act on two key issues; passing extenders and an omnibus bill that keeps the government funded past Friday. However, Republicans have accused Senate Democrats for holding a House-passed, $1 trillion omnibus bill “hostage” until both parties can agree on a “more acceptable” extension of the payroll-tax package. 

Democrats have defended this accusation by voicing concern over the possibility the House would pass its version of the extender and payroll bills then skip town, forcing the Senate to take up the bills without any changes.

Congress now has two days to keep the government funded past Friday and just over two weeks before Americans see their paychecks shrink in 2013.

ICE gets slammed at Congressional Border Issues Conference

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

“What happens on one side of the border affects the other side. Mexico and the United States are separated by a border, but both communities share a goal of helping all of our peoples,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the 13th Annual U.S. - Mexico Congressional Border Issues Conference, where panelists gathered to talk about topics such as Comprehensive Immigration Reform, drug and weapon trafficking, and the Merida Initiative. 

Among the panelists was Geraldo Rivera, host of “Geraldo at Large” on the FOX News Channel who said that instead of sending troops to the U.S./Mexican border, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) needs to start focusing on catching criminals and stop raiding processing plants where people are just there to work. “The immigration debate in this country has been so poisoned, and it’s become so racist in many ways.... We have distorted policy so that it hurts our national security. We have a totally competent law enforcement agency to deal with these criminals,” Rivera said. Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed with Rivera saying that unnecessary ICE raids are not the American way and that they must stop.

Pelosi talked about the need for comprehensive immigration reform saying that we need it soon. “It would secure our borders, it would protect our workers, it would prohibit the exploitation of workers coming into our country, it would unite our families,” she stated. Pelosi said that she is sending Congressmen to Mexico to see how our nations can work together. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will also be traveling to Mexico to show support. 

Rivera also expressed his support for the Dream Act, which states that undocumented young people could be eligible for a conditional path to citizenship in exchange for a mandatory two years in higher education or military service. In order for the undocumented young person to have the chance to become an American citizen, they must demonstrate good moral character to be eligible for and stay in conditional residency. Rivera said, “You want to stimulate the gross domestic product? Let’s get these Latino youngsters graduating high school.... But to take kids who are getting A’s and say they can’t get in-state tuition in college because they’re not documented, It’s preposterous, it’s un-American, it’s Anti-American.... Get Dream passed.”

Pelosi also discussed the Merida Initiative, saying that $300 million would be given to Mexico as part of the omnibus bill that was passed last week. “Every person who comes here with that determination, with that optimism, with that hope, with those family values and sense of community and spirit of faith, every person who comes here, certainly from the Hispanic community, when they come here they make America more American,” she concluded.