Towards the end of the legislative session, in a last-minute flurry of activity, congressional Republicans managed to pass something called the “Secure Fence Act,” which purports to authorize the construction of 700 miles of new fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. The House and Senate passed it, and the president wants to sign it.
So what’s the problem? Congress has decided it would rather play a little game with the legislation.
The White House is pleading with Congress to send over the bill authorizing 700 miles of fence on the U.S.-Mexico border so the president can sign it immediately, but Republican leaders on Capitol Hill want to wait until closer to the election and to have a public signing ceremony.
“Send us the damn bill. We’d like to autograph it,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to allow for more freedom to discuss politics and policy.
“Our object was to sign it last week so we can have port security and border security together and herald an effort to control all of the borders of the United States. We even had ways to talk about what we were doing at the airports,” the official said.
But congressional Republicans, convinced that they’ll need some kind of last-minute stunt to curry favor with voters, has ignored White House requests and continues to sit on a bill both chambers have already passed.
“It’s a timing issue,” an aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said. “We want it signed closer to the election when folks are paying attention and those who want to take advantage of the messaging opportunity can do so.” House Republican leadership aides confirmed to the far-right Washington Times that this is their strategy.
This is all terribly silly and more than a little pathetic.
You may recall junior high civics class (or, barring that, School House Rock) on how a bill becomes a law. Congress passes legislation, they send to the White House, the president either signs it or vetoes it. If a president doesn’t respond to the bill within 10 days, the measure is “pocket vetoed.”
Except, in this case, Congress has held an already-passed bill for more than two weeks. What’s more, these geniuses who run Congress (at least for now) don’t even know where the bill is.
The bill’s actual status is somewhat murky. Calls to the House clerk’s office were referred to the House Administration Committee, and a spokeswoman was not able to say where the bill was.
[Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa)] said he has assigned his staff to track down the bill because he, too, wants to know where it stands.
The Bush administration official said the bill’s status has been explained several times, but “I for the life of me could not explain it to you.”
Can’t anybody here play this game?
Republican leaders passed this bill in September saying it was “urgent” and a matter of “national security.” Now these clowns can’t even find the bill and prefer to play a asinine game than to actually get the legislation signed into law. I talked to a source in the Senate who told me that he’d never seen Congress refuse to send a passed bill to the White House like this.
Putting all of this aside, is it a good political strategy? In other words, do Republicans actually stand to gain from an 11th-hour bill signing? I suspect now. First, Bush has said he wouldn’t hold a signing ceremony because the bill is (accurately) perceived as anti-Hispanic. Second, as conservative voters probably know, the “fence” is a bit of a joke.
No sooner did Congress authorize construction of a 700-mile fence on the U.S.-Mexico border last week than lawmakers rushed to approve separate legislation that ensures it will never be built….
Shortly before recessing late Friday, the House and Senate gave the Bush administration leeway to distribute the money to a combination of projects — not just the physical barrier along the southern border. The funds may also be spent on roads, technology and “tactical infrastructure” to support the Department of Homeland Security’s preferred option of a “virtual fence.”
….In this case, it also reflects political calculations by GOP strategists that voters do not mind the details, and that key players — including the administration, local leaders and the Mexican government — oppose a fence-only approach, analysts said.
Congressional Republicans can’t even get their own cynical demagoguery right. It’s just sad.