Ted Cruz and other Republicans in the Senate have been urged by conservatives from the House of Representatives to accelerate their struggle to block the immigration executive action taken by President Obama. Republicans in the House fear that their Senate colleagues are losing the desire to pass a bill that would block Obama’s executive action.
Republican leaders in the Senate warned that it would be difficult to get the numbers needed to pass the bill that the House of Representatives passed last week, despite their majority. Tea Party member Raul Labrador says that Cruz, along with Mike Lee and other Republicans in the Senate, need to stand up and be counted rather than leave the difficult struggle to the House.
“I’m speaking to our conservative counterparts … on the Senate side, who have said time and time again ‘You in the House need to do this, you in the House need to do that.’ Well, you know what? Now it’s in the Senate and they have an opportunity to shine, and to do their job,” said Arizona representative Matt Salmon, echoing Labrador’s sentiments.
Republicans were warned last week by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell that the chances of the bill being passed were far from certain. The White House has made it clear that any bill that attempts to railroad the blocking of Obama’s executive actions on immigration by restricting funding for the Department of Homeland Security will be vetoed by the president.