Monday, August 9, 2010
You know that $600 million for border security that the U.S. Senate finally passed last week? The New York Times reports that the spending package has hit a procedural snag in the House of Representatives:
With the House coming back, the Senate then gave surprise 11th hour approval to a $600 million immigration enforcement measure and a child nutrition bill intended to reduce child obesity, a priority of Michelle Obama, in the hope that the House could send both measures to the president as well.But House leaders are raising jurisdictional issues over the immigration bill, saying that fee increases included in the measure to pay for added border enforcement violate the Constitutional requirement that revenue measures originate in the House. House leaders could decide Monday to send it back to the Senate with no action, a process known in Congressional parlance as blue slipping.
That result is certain to disappoint lawmakers, particularly endangered House Democrats in Arizona who had hoped to show residents that Congress was getting tough on border control.