BUDGET/DREAMERS/IMMIGRATION/POLITICS: “Congress begins its likely final week of 2017 with lawmakers from both parties forced to grapple with tough questions they have deferred all year, including immigration and the federal budget.
The government’s current funding expires Saturday [12-16-17] at 12:01 a.m., with no clear plan in sight on how to keep it running. In one major obstacle, GOP and Democratic leaders have yet to agree with the White House on where overall spending levels should be set for the next two years.
Nor have they struck a deal on how to handle the so-called Dreamers, young people living in the U.S. illegally who were brought here as children. President Donald Trump in September ended an Obama-era program shielding them from deportation, urging Congress to pass new legislation by March, when some of these immigrants begin losing protections.
Some Democrats have said they would withhold their support from the spending bill needed to prevent a government shutdown if it doesn’t include protections for Dreamers, but their leaders haven’t made the same pledge, and their signals have left allies suspicious that they would allow the matter to tick into next year. Republicans, meanwhile, are divided over the issue…
Republicans control both chambers of Congress, but Democrats have influence because their votes are usually needed to pass spending bills in the House and always in the Senate, where such measures need 60 votes to clear procedural hurdles.”
-Kristina Peterson and Laura Meckler, “Congress Faces Crunch Time on Spending, Immigration,” The Wall Street Journal online, Dec. 17, 2017 05:19pm