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At the end of last year and ahead of the 114th Congress, lawmakers in both chambers voted to fund the government and avert another painful and unnecessary shutdown. While the legislation funded nearly all areas of government through the end of the fiscal year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was only funded through February. This legislative strategy was enacted to allow the new majority in both chambers the opportunity to address the president’s unconstitutional executive order related to immigration and rightly block funding for its implementation.
The Oklahoman - Chris Casteel
The start of the new Congress has been marked by familiar conflicts between Republicans and President Barack Obama, raising questions about whether the next two years will yield anything but more grid-lock.
Obama is scheduled to give a State of the Union speech Tuesday to a Congress totally controlled by Republicans for the first time in his presidency.
Roll Call - Niels Lesniewski
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair drew three standing ovations when he addressed the joint House-Senate Republican retreat Thursday with a speech that one lawmaker likened to the oratory of Winston Churchill.
Despite claims that he wants to work with the new Congress and enact positive reforms for the American people, President Obama certainly isn’t starting off the year in a way that reflects such intentions. By already threatening to veto any legislation on Keystone XL that makes it to his desk, the president is choosing environmental extremists over hardworking Americans who would benefit from the thousands of jobs created.
New York Times - Julie Hirschfeld Davis
In the halls of the White House and the corridors of the Capitol, there was a stark dissonance last week between President Obama’s rhetoric of consensus and compromise and his confrontational actions, offering the first glimmers of the president’s strategy for engaging with a Republican Congress that holds the fate of his agenda in its hands.
On the first day of the 114th Congress, Mr. Obama sat in the Oval Office and said his message to the new Republican Congress would be, “Let’s figure out how to work together.”