Pelosi calls for DACA deal ahead of spending debate
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said she wants a solution on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program before a Dec. 8 deadline for an omnibus spending package.
“My hope would be that DACA would be done before then,” Pelosi said, without ruling out that the issue could still be included in the omnibus.
Pelosi’s comments come after a Huffington Post report that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) expected a DACA fix in the spending omnibus.
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Pelosi had earlier threatened that Democrats would vote against spending bills, which would lead to a government shutdown in December, if they did not include a solution for DACA recipients, young immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children and are commonly known as Dreamers.
President Trump said he would end the program, which created a legal avenue for work and education for some immigrants who came to the U.S. through no fault of their own, in March. But he expressed support for a congressional fix to the issue.
Democrats have said they expect a solution to DACA before the spending bill, but many see the shutdown threat as a backstop, saying they would vote against a spending measure if a solution had not been reached.
“I will not vote for an end-of-year spending bill until we are clear about what we are going to do to protect and take care of our DACA young people in this country,” California Sen. Kamala Harris (D) said Wednesday.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told The Hill that he had hopes of a solution before the deadline, but the threat of a shutdown loomed.
“I hope we don’t get there,” he said, but added of a possible shutdown that “there is a chance, yeah.”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said he thought Democrats and Republicans would find solutions to both DACA and ObamaCare subsidy payments, which President Trump said he would not continue to pay.
“I think those are both high likelihood for being resolved between now and year end. I do,” Kaine said.
According to the Huffington Post report, Ryan said he did not expect the subsidy payments to be included in the spending deal.
But DACA and health subsidies are just some of the issues on which Democrats may focus in the upcoming spending debate.
“I think for many members in our caucus there will be red lines, and one of them probably will be DACA. So the issue is, if they need our votes, and if we’re going to be able to provide enough votes, they’re going to need to be very cooperative in negotiating with us,” said Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), the ranking member on the House Budget Committee.
Democrats are also concerned with keeping increases on nondefense spending and defense spending in line, passing further disaster relief and funding children’s health programs, among other issues.
–This story was updated at 3:50 p.m.
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