Jeff Sessions dares Obama to veto bill blocking funding for amnesty

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Tuesday night said there is growing support in the Senate to deny President Barack Obama the funding he needs to executive his immigration plans, and said Obama's veto of that legislation would not be supported by the American people.

Sessions said on the Mark Levin Show that Republicans will be looking to pass a government funding bill that prevents Obama from using any money to implement an amnesty program for millions of illegal immigrants. Sessions admitted that passage of this language might have to wait until next year, when Republicans take over the Senate.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Tuesday night that vetoing language to stop President Barack Obama's planned immigration move would not go well for Obama.
Photo credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

But when it passes, Sessions said a veto from Obama would not go well for Obama.

"[I]f the president says, well I'm going to veto a funding of the entire United States government because you won't let me have money to spend on my executive amnesty that you refuse to pass but I want to do anyway, then I think the American people are not going to support him," he said.

Sessions said Congress clearly has the power to defund Obama's intention to go around Congress and ease immigration laws. He noted that Congress has successfully blocked funding to close terrorist detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay, and said similar language could be used to stop Obama's immigration plans.

"Congress clearly has this power," he said. "The right thing to do, when 80 percent of the American people by polling data show that they oppose executive amnesty, is to put in language that says, OK, we're funding the government, but we're not going to fund an unlawful abuse of power and executive amnesty that Congress has explicitly rejected."

Sessions said many of the senators who supported the Senate's "Gang of 8" immigration bill last year oppose Obama's plan to go it alone, and would likely support a defunding measure.

The only question is when Congress might be able to pass this language. While Republicans support it, Democrats control the Senate until the end of the year. If that happens, Sessions said it's "realistic" to assume that Republicans will consider a short-term funding bill, until early next year, when the GOP controls the Senate.

That would let Republicans try again to approve a spending bill that cuts off Obama's move, which Sessions called a "fundamental challenge to our governmental structure."