{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://roby.house.gov/column/appropriations-plan-passes-congress", "Appropriations Plan Passes Congress", "2014-12-19", "2014", "2014-12", "Republican", "House", "AL", "Martha Roby", "R000591", "roby.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "This past week, Congress passed a comprehensive Appropriations plan that:\n funds critical government operations;\n\tincludes strong, important, conservative policy provisions; and\u00a0\n\tallows Congress the best opportunity to reverse President Obama\u2019s unilateral immigration actions when Republicans have dual House and Senate majorities in January.\n This Appropriations plan brings the federal deficit to half what it was in 2010, slashes funding for the Internal Revenue Service by $345 million, prevents federal authorities from regulating farm ponds and irrigation ditches under the Clean Water Act, and provides critical military funding, including for new Lakota Helicopters to enhance the aviation training mission at Fort Rucker and for the Navy\u2019s Mobile-built Littoral Combat Ship and Joint-High Speed Vessel.\nAs a Member of the House Appropriations Committee, I have been directly involved in the work to write new spending bills that reflect more responsible, conservative\u00a0principles. Though the process was at times contentious, Congress made significant progress throughout the year toward the proper appropriation of government funding, as required by the Constitution. However, as you probably know, last month President Obama announced plans to\u00a0unilaterally act to give de facto legal status to millions of illegal immigrants by using\u00a0executive orders. Congressional leaders then set out to find ways to block this egregious overreach of executive\u00a0authority.\u00a0\nI\u00a0support blocking such action through the appropriations process,\u00a0using the\u00a0\u201cpower of the purse\u201d to\u00a0prohibit federal funds from being used to implement his orders. Used effectively, the appropriations process is one of the most powerful checks on the Executive Branch. Many of my\u00a0colleagues\u00a0agreed, and we eventually coalesced around a proposal from Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) that would give Congress the best chance to reverse the President\u2019s actions.\u00a0\nThe plan included passing an Appropriations bill that funds 11 of the 12 government divisions through the remainder of Fiscal Year 2015. The exception was Homeland Security, which is where immigration enforcement funding is contained. For Homeland Security, the plan included a Continuing Resolution, short-funding the agency temporarily so that Congress can\u00a0more effectively utilize the \u201cpower of the purse\u201d to rein in President Obama\u2019s immigration actions in three weeks when Republicans take the Majority in the Senate.\u00a0\nThis is the best strategy for defeating\u00a0executive amnesty. Given the way the American public feels about his reckless immigration policies and our ability to focus their attention on this single issue, I like our chances.", 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://roby.house.gov/column/appropriations-plan-passes-congress"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 683.6837232112885, "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"}