President Obama’s end-run around lawmakers on immigration could derail hopes for a measure that would fund the federal government — including the Pentagon — through September.

Obama took to the prime time airwaves Thursday evening to announce an executive order that would defer deportations of illegal aliens, drawing the immediate ire of congressional Republicans, especially because the president himself said in 2013 such a move would be unconstitutional.

"This could move us in the direction of a CR [continuing resolution], I think," Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told CongressWatch a few hours before Obama spoke.

"I would like an omnibus, but not at any price," Shelby said. "I think it changes a lot of things. We'll have to see. It could poison the water and drive us toward a CR."

That so-called immigration poison could lead Republicans to revolt, forcing House leaders to scrap an omnibus spending bill that would fund the Pentagon and other federal agencies through Sept. 30 in favor of a CR that would span a few months.

Senate Majority Leader-elect Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., vowed Thursday that "Congress will act" to rebuff Obama's immigration order. In a floor speech, McConnell said Republicans are "considering a variety of options." He did not endorse using the budget process, starting with the expiring federal funding, to do that.

In a Thursday floor speech, tea party Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said Congress should "use the power of the purse to stop the lawlessness by this administration."

Heritage Action, the political wing of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, urged lawmakers to use "every tool available" to fight the immigration order.

Conservative House Republicans want to set up a shutdown showdown over Obama's move, but old-school GOP members are pushing other options.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told reporters he is up for using spending bills next year to defund Obama's immigration moves, but added tersely: "We cannot shut down the government."

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., echoed that sentiment, saying "Congress should fund the government while ensuring that no funds can be spent on this unlawful purpose."

Speaking Friday at Heritage, Sessions said Republicans "should really look at other options" for de-funding or otherwise halting Obama's immigration plan rather than forcing a government shutdown.

Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations committees, respectively, are in talks about a long-term spending bill.

House and Senate leaders from both parties would prefer to take the prospect of a government shutdown next month and for the remainder of the fiscal year off the table.

A stopgap government-funding measure expires Dec. 11, and House conservatives' desire to use repeated threats of government shutdowns to influence the White House's pending action on immigration has House GOP leaders searching for options.

A continuing resolution like the one under which the government is operating now would fund the military and other departments at prior-year levels.

The kind of spending measure preferred by Rogers and Mikulski could include several full-year appropriations measures, including one for the Pentagon. Defense officials and industry executives prefer full-year bills over stopgap measures so they can start new programs, award multiyear contracts and fire up new production lines.

In a comment that might rile Defense Department brass and industry executives, Shelby noted, "there is not that much difference in the money, either way, if you look at the omnibus spending and a CR."

Neither House Speaker Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, nor Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., have said when they intend to move a government-funding bill next month.

But congressional sources said Thursday that Rogers and Mikulski are planning to drop their omnibus on Dec. 8, just three days before government funding runs out.

"We are making significant progress on a full-year, 12-bill omnibus," one Senate aide said. "We expect to have it ready for the floor by the week of Dec. 8."

In a Friday statement, Mikulski said "the agency that will implement the president's executive order is financed through fees, not appropriations.

"That agency has the authority to operate under a continuing resolution, or even a shutdown," Mikulski said. "Chairman Rogers and I want to do our job. We have important national security concerns, we have legislation that meets compelling human needs and deals with everything from jobs to public health and safety including Ebola response and preparedness funding.

"We're negotiating across the aisle and across the dome," she added. "We're meeting our constitutionally mandated responsibility by keeping the government open and working on behalf of the American people. We continue to make steady progress."​ ■

Email: jbennett@defensenews.com.

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