Blog: House Votes to Limit President’s Phone and Pen 
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions has led the fight against House Republicans passing any immigration bill that does not rein in President Obama’s “phone and pen” strategy of using executive orders to get what he wants. Sessions warnings and the efforts of the American people in overloading the Capitol switchboard have paid off and last night the vote on Speaker of the House John Boehner’s immigration bill was cancelled due to a lack of support. The original plan had been that on the condition of that bill passing, members would then be allowed to a vote on standalone language prohibiting the expansion of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program granting deportation relief and work permits to children brought here illegally by their parents.
Tonight conservatives joined other Republicans in passing a $694 million appropriations bill to address the surge of illegal alien children crossing the southern border unaccompanied. In return, their bill to limit President Obama’s executive orders concerning DACA, which he has considering expanding to five million additional illegals, was brought to the floor for a vote. By a largely party line vote of 216-192, it passed in the House. Four Democrats voted ‘yea,’ while eleven Republicans voted “nay.” Senator Harry Reid has already said it will not be brought to the floor for a vote and President Obama has said he would not sign it into law even if it passed in the Senate.
Is the battle over immigration or are Republicans racists and cowards as the Democrats say or is the battle over separation of powers? Has President Obama deliberately sidestepped Congress and used executive orders to get the end result he wants? Should steps be taken to limit a President’s executive orders? Does the preservation of our representative republic depend upon the answers to those questions?
