HOUSE PASSES BORDER CRISIS BILL AFTER MARATHON PROCESS - Obama Vows To 'Act Alone'
The 223-189 vote Friday night - completed after 8:30 p.m. ET in Washington - was a big, albeit delayed, win for House leadership, including House Speaker John Boehner, new House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and new House Majority Whip Steve Scalise.
House leadership revived the bill Friday after shelving their initial plan on Thursday, an original embarrassment for House Republican leadership. House Republicans left town slamming the Democratic-controlled Senate, where a bill to address the crisis went up in flames amid mostly Republican opposition Thursday night.
"The House has just passed a responsible bill to address the humanitarian crisis at our southern border," Boehner said in a statement. "It will help secure our border and ensure the safe and swift return of these children to their home countries. If President Obama needs these resources, he will urge Senate Democrats to put politics aside, come back to work, and approve our bill."
The revised House plan provides $694 million in funding through the end of the 2014 fiscal year in September. It's far less than the $3.7 billion Obama requested.
The bill includes include changes to a 2008 tracking law that would speed up deportations of unaccompanied minors from Central America, which has served as the key sticking point between Republicans and Democrats on the border debate. The House legislation also sends money to deploy National Guard troops on the border directly to governors.
The House legislation has little chance of passing the Senate. The White House has threatened a veto.
The House still has to vote on a second bill, one leadership added to the process to increase conservative support. It's a beefed-up version of a bill written by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). That legislation would halt the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a unilateral directive from President Barack Obama that shields hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The White House blasted the vote, and Press Secretary Josh Earnest called it "extraordinary" that House Republicans would try to reverse the DACA program. Earlier in the day, at a press conference, Obama ripped House Republicans and said he would have to act alone to fix the problem immediately.
"Well, I'm going to have to act alone because we don't have enough resources. We've already been very clear - we've run out of money," Obama said.