BEYOND BORDER WALL As congressional Republicans fight over their strategy for passing major bills along party lines next year, they’re united around one filibuster-skirting priority: Border security policies need to make it into their first shot. Reminder: There’s an internal GOP debate over whether to do one giant reconciliation package next year that addresses top priorities on taxes, energy and the border or split it into two bills. But handling border and immigration policy right away is a major point of agreement for the conference. Senate GOP leaders favor the two-track strategy because they believe it will allow them to address immigration priorities earlier. The House Freedom Caucus board has said it just wants border security policy in the first reconciliation bill. And while the House’s top tax writer wants an extension of the 2017 tax cuts to also headline a first attempt, he doesn’t take issue with the border policy also in the mix. Here’s what Republicans are discussing on that front, and the challenges their biggest targets may face: ‘Finish’ the wall — Many GOP lawmakers are saying reconciliation should be used to fund the completion of the border wall President-elect Donald Trump started building during his first administration. Because the reconciliation process can’t be used to pass discretionary funding, that money would need to be classified as mandatory, the category of ongoing spending that covers “forever” programs like Medicare and Social Security. And some Republicans are bristling at that idea. “I worry about the level of mandatory spending we have today, and increasing mandatory spending is not appealing. So I don’t know how we sort this out yet,” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), an appropriator, told Inside Congress. On the other side of the Capitol, senior appropriator Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) noted that appropriators “are, as a general rule, not in favor of giving up more of the tiny bit of jurisdiction that they have left.” “There's been way too much peacocking going on without anybody figuring out how the hell you feed and water the animals,” Amodei said about Republicans publicly touting their reconciliation ambitions. “Are you going to vote for the bill? Show me the bill, and I’ll tell ya.” Increase fees — House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Inside Congress he’s been talking to his top immigration aides about how to use a reconciliation bill to drum up revenue to pay for more drones that surveil the border, as well as finish the border wall, increase border security agents and surge personnel to repatriate immigrants being sent back to their home countries. “We’re trying to figure all that out,” Jordan said, referring to how to get the priorities to work within the strict rules of the reconciliation process. “The Democrats were pretty innovative in the previous Congress.” One idea GOP lawmakers are floating: Hike the parole fees immigrants pay to temporarily stay in the United States while their requests for citizenship, residency or asylum are being decided. “The vast majority of them had no basis to be released into the country,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said about undocumented immigrants entering the United States. “So we feel like we should be able to apply fees and increase the fees” Taxing remittances — Every year, immigrants in the United States send tens of billions of dollars in cash and goods back to friends and family in their countries of origin. That includes billions of dollars flowing out of the U.S. to India, Mexico and China. And Roy favors taxing those remittances to cover some of the costs of increased border security spending. It gets “complex” to track and tax that outflow of cash, Roy admits, noting that people are sending remittances abroad through Venmo and other apps. “But we certainly ought to go down that road,” he added. Boost enforcement — Besides funding for the border wall, many Republicans are talking about using reconciliation to increase the number of Border Patrol agents and ICE officers who handle deportation, along with boosting funding for border security technology and vessels that patrol the U.S. coastline. Cutting off government services — House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said Republicans are discussing using reconciliation to make sure undocumented immigrants aren’t receiving certain government services, which could help offset any funding or tax cuts under the package. Congressional Republicans note that Congress’ nonpartisan budget scorekeeper estimated this year that the recent immigration surge will increase U.S. spending on mandatory programs by about $300 billion over a decade. — Jennifer Scholtes GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Monday, Dec. 16, where we’re looking at every large stack of paper that goes by hoping it’s CR text. And speaking of …
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