{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://cole.house.gov/new-york-times-some-republicans-lean-away-government-shutdown-tactic", "New York Times: Some Republicans Lean Away From Government Shutdown Tactic", "2014-11-18", "2014", "2014-11", "Republican", "House", "OK", "Tom Cole", "C001053", "cole.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "New York Times - Ashley Parker\nAmericans For Prosperity \u2014 the group founded by the billionaire Koch brothers \u2014 has met quietly with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill in recent weeks, cautioning them against fighting the president\u2019s promised executive order on immigration with a strategy that could lead to a government shutdown.\nGov. Chris Christie of New Jersey echoed that sentiment on Monday in a private meeting of newly elected House members.\nAnd on Tuesday, House Republicans emerged from a closed meeting coalescing around two plans that would help fight an expected executive order on immigration from President Obama without fully shutting down the government.\n\u201cWe went down the government shutdown route a year ago. It didn\u2019t work, and I think a lot of people that recall that don\u2019t think it\u2019s wise to repeat that exercise,\u201d said Republican Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot more than just a sledgehammer in the toolbox, and so let\u2019s use some of these other weapons that we have.\u201d\nOne option floated by Representative Harold Rogers, Republican of Kentucky and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, calls for passing his committee\u2019s broad spending bill by the Dec. 11 deadline, and then rescinding just the funding for Mr. Obama\u2019s executive action.\nThe other option, proposed by Republican Representative Tom Price of Georgia, calls for passing most of the broad spending bill \u2014 but taking out just those funding programs specifically related to the Mr. Obama\u2019s planned immigration action, and fighting the president with a short-term stand-alone measure for those particular funds.\nMr. Obama could announce as soon as this week an executive order that would allow up to five million unauthorized immigrants to remain in the country and work without fear of deportation.\n\u201cWe want the government fully funded, but that particular area needs to be defunded,\u201d said Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota. \u201cWe don\u2019t want a government shutdown at all, but we\u2019re going to super-scalpel on that area where the president is acting illegally.\u201d\nRepresentative Matt Salmon, Republican of Arizona, said that House Republicans were considering a range of options, but that they did not plan to shut down the government, while still promising to fight the president on immigration.\n\u201cEverything is on the table and the speaker has committed that we\u2019re going to come up with a plan that does not allow the president to have the funding to do this,\u201d Mr. Salmon said.\nEarlier, Mr. Rogers had called on colleagues in an opinion article to pass his committee\u2019s spending bill \u201cin a responsible, transparent and pragmatic way, without the specter of government shutdowns or the lurching, wasteful and unproductive budgeting caused by temporary stopgap measures.\u201d\nTheir collective voice carried an unmistakable message for the more conservative Republicans in Congress: Shutting down the government would be a terrible way for the party to start its time in power.\nIn floor speeches, opinion articles, public statements and private meetings, Republicans have urged their more conservative colleagues to allow the broad spending bill to pass before the deadline.\nAmericans For Prosperity\u2019s basic pitch to Republicans is: Do not let the president\u2019s immigration stance derail you from your ambitious governing agenda. For those who want to fight Mr. Obama on immigration, the group counsels, the best opportunity will come in the next Congress \u2014 when Republicans will control both chambers \u2014 through the so-called \u201cregular order\u201d process of committee deliberation and full debate on the floor.\n\u201cIt is important for the new Republican majority to stay focused on crucial priorities like rolling back Obamacare, passing the Keystone pipeline and other energy initiatives, and passing a free market budget,\u201d said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity. \u201cThat means not overreacting to executive orders by the president.\u201d\nThe 16-day government shutdown in 2013 over the Affordable Care Act badly damaged the Republicans\u2019 standing, and many party elders and strategists want to avoid a repeat.\nIn his op-ed article in Roll Call, Mr. Rogers said Republicans had a mandate \u201cto work together, to govern, to stop the punting and procrastinating, and to make the tough decisions and cast the hard votes to accomplish the tasks they sent us to Washington to do. Completing our lingering appropriations work quickly will help us fulfill this mandate both now and in the months to come.\u201d\nRyan Zinke, an incoming Republican representative from Montana, said that among the messages delivered by Governor Christie was \u201cnot shutting the government down.\u201d\nAnd speaking on the Senate floor on Monday, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said he had been having \u201cproductive, bipartisan conversations\u201d with Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, about passing the spending bill.\n\u201cIt\u2019s clear to me that Republican leaders want to work together to keep the government funded,\u201d Mr. Reid said. \u201cI hope Republicans in Congress will reject this brinkmanship. A scorched earth policy is no way to govern. Instead, responsible leaders within the Republican Party need to work with Democrats to complete the business of funding our government, regardless of when the president acts to keep families together.\u201d\nSome Republicans, however, including Mr. Boehner, have left the possibility of a shutdown on the table. Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, an outspoken opponent of an immigration overhaul, is readying legislation to undo whatever action the president takes, as well as to undo the protected status the president has already provided to the young undocumented immigrants brought here as children.\n\u201cI\u2019d like to find a way we can keep as much of the government operating as possible, but there\u2019s no way that this Congress should go forward with any appropriations that goes into any department that reacts to the command of the president when he commands that they violate the law or the Constitution,\u201d Mr. King said last week. \u201cSo that means that we can\u2019t fund the branches of government that would be executing his lawless unconstitutional act, should he commit it.\u201d\nEven Republicans who have been outspoken critics of what they view as \u201cexecutive amnesty\u201d \u2014 as well as what they say is the president\u2019s general overstepping of his constitutional authority \u2014 said that a government shutdown was not a savvy move for the party.\n\u201cI\u2019m just unalterably opposed to another government shutdown. I\u2019m not going to do that to my state, and I will do everything in my power to see that we don\u2019t shut down the government,\u201d said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. \u201cThere are lots of ways we can respond, including going to court, including Appropriations bills, including the Budget Act. There are lots of the things we can do. Shutting down the government should not be one of the options.\u201d\nSenator Jeff Flake of Arizona \u2014 one of four Republicans, along with Mr. McCain, who worked to produce a bipartisan immigration bill that passed the Senate last year \u2014 said he shared Mr. McCain\u2019s goal. He said he had been giving simple counsel to colleagues behind the scenes: \u201cDon\u2019t shut the government down.\u201d\nOnline: New York Times", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://cole.house.gov/new-york-times-some-republicans-lean-away-government-shutdown-tactic"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3644509017467499, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}