The Congressional Research Service has told Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) that Congress has the legal authority to restrict the work of federal agencies funded by fees, a finding that could embolden Republicans to pass legislation blocking Obama's executive action on immigration.
Before leaving for the Thanksgiving break, House Republicans were debating whether Congress could pass a bill to stop U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from implementing Obama's executive action. Questions were raised about whether Congress had any authority over USCIS because that agency is largely funded through fees, rather than the appropriation of specific amounts of money from Congress.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) got an opinion from the Congressional Research Service that says Congress has the authority to defund President Barack Obama's immigration action. Credit: AP
But according to CRS, Congress would not face any legal barrier if it tried to limit the work of USCIS.
"Importantly, amounts received as fees by federal agencies must still be appropriated by Congress to that agency in order to be available for obligation or expenditure by the agency," CRS said.
CRS said that appropriation can be made either through the regular appropriations process, or in a separate bill. "In either case, the funds available to the agency through fee collections would be subject to the same potential restrictions imposed by Congress on the use of its appropriation as any other type of appropriated funds."
Before the break, the House Appropriations Committee seemed to throw cold water on the idea of trying to limit the work of USCIS, by saying Congress couldn't do that. That theory was immediately opposed by other Republicans, such as Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who said it shouldn't be a problem.
"This is not rocket science," King said. "Are we going to allow a president to violate the Constitution and say our rules in the House won't let us restrain the president? I call that another red herring."
Republicans are thought to be examining what steps they might take to stop Obama when they return next week. Congress will try to pass a bill to fund the government after mid-December, and many GOP members want to include language stopping Obama's immigration move on that bill.
But Republicans might also wait until early next year. Because key parts of Obama's action won't take effect for a few months, the GOP has some time to examine how to proceed.
