Speaker Boehner says House will have 'leverage' on Obama and immigration

[December 05, 2014]  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ignoring objections from some conservative Republicans, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday vowed to plow ahead with a spending bill that avoids a government shutdown while keeping some budget "leverage" over President Barack Obama's immigration order.

Boehner told a news conference that he expected the bill, which provides full funding for all government agencies except the Department of Homeland Security through September 2015, to pass next week with some help from House Democrats.

DHS, which controls the agencies that would implement Obama's plan to allow millions of undocumented immigrants stay and work in the United States, would get only a short-term funding extension, likely until sometime in February, Republican lawmakers said.

At that time, Republicans will be in a better position to restrict spending on these items when they control the Senate and a hold a stronger House majority.

"We think this is the most practical way to fight the president's action," Boehner said. "And we listened to our members. And, frankly, we listened to some members who were frankly griping the most. This was their idea on how to proceed."

Some of the House's most conservative members are calling for a harder stand on spending to fight the immigration order, including an explicit ban on implementation money or a short-term extension on all spending, strategies that would increase the risk of a broad government shutdown like the one in October 2013.

But several Republican lawmakers said Boehner has sufficient support to pass the funding bill with some Democratic votes while facing little risk of a rebellion in his caucus.

Part of Boehner's strategy to appease hard-line conservatives is to hold a vote on Thursday on a bill that retroactively rescinds Obama's executive authority over immigration, effectively declaring his action illegal. But the measure will be largely symbolic because Democrats, who still control the Senate, have said they will not take it up, and the White House has threatened to veto it.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Bill Trott)

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