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North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis and Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema have reportedly reached a framework deal on immigration reform they would like to push through in the lame duck session before Republicans take the House in January. The deal would include a pathway to citizenship for two million Dreamers, or DACA recipients who were brought to the U.S. as children, resources to speed up asylum processing and removal of those who do not qualify, more funding for border officers, and a one-year extension of Title 42 until new processing centers are up and running, according to the Washington Post. The...

Meanwhile, Sens. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) are negotiating on a narrower bill based on a House-passed measure that provided a pathway to citizenship for some undocumented farmworkers. The senators have not yet reached a deal but are hoping to get to one before the end of the lame-duck session this month, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the situation candidly.

House Republicans who have spent the last two years arguing that there was bias in President Barack Obama’s Justice Department are preparing to subpoena two key witnesses in the final weeks of their majority — former FBI Director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., has notified colleagues that he will subpoena Comey for a closed-door deposition Nov. 29 and Lynch for Dec. 5, according to a person familiar with the subpoenas. The person declined to be identified because the person was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The subpoenas...

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid pulled out one of his most familiar threats during perhaps his last week as majority leader, pledging to keep the Senate in session through the weekend to get 23 of President Barack Obama’s nominations confirmed and pass bills extending billions in tax breaks and providing terrorism risk insurance to commercial buildings. The Senate already worked one Saturday this month, so why not another? While the Nevada Democrat is not yet warning senators that the chamber could work on Christmas, his remarks on Monday morning were clearly aimed at getting Republicans to relent on procedurally fighting...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hopes to confirm 50 of President Obama’s nominees and move an omnibus spending bill in a last hurrah before Democrats give up power in the Senate. The nominees are part of a packed lame-duck schedule that Reid is furiously planning, and that will be a topic at Friday’s White House lunch meeting between Obama and congressional leaders. Reid also wants to move a package of expiring tax provisions, the annual Defense Department authorization bill and an extension of a tax moratorium on Internet purchases in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That will be...

House Republicans are preparing a continuing resolution to keep the government open. In doing so, they’ve decided to be total sluts for K Street and Wall Street. The Crony Capitalists, emboldened by the Chamber of Commerce’s help during primary season, are doing some very unusual things. Here’s what I hear is happening. First, they will reauthorize the Ex-Im bank, which is something K Street is desperate to see happen. Second, current reports are that they will spend more than the original Paul Ryan — Patti Murray deal that had included a tax hike. However, that is subject to change. Third,...

In an abrupt switch from his months of work to bring immigration reform back from life support, Speaker John Boehner told reporters today that the issue cannot move forward until President Obama proves he can be a trustworthy partner to implement the law as written. “There's widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. And it's going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes,” Boehner said. The change in tack comes after rank-and-file members pushed hard against immigration “principles” unveiled at a retreat last week and top immigration hawks had begun...

The Tea Party movement did America another huge favor last week. The Democratic leadership in Congress had managed to go a whole year without passing a federal budget bill. As it did with the health care bill and others in the past two years, the party had manufactured a "crisis" with a sudden deadline (the government might shut down!) in hope of passing a humongous spending bill. The trick might've worked thanks to Republican fondness for pork-barrel spending. Senate Democratic leadership won over lots of Republicans by rolling GOP pork projects (earmarks) from previous bills into the larger one. But...

I'll probably get called a crack-pot (again) but here goes ... I have a bad feeling about things, a really bad feeling in fact. We have the democrats who were soundly defeated trying to pass through their agenda in the lame duck session with the dream act, trying to let the tax cuts expire, and so on. All things designed to further harm the country. On the security side of things Iran is stock piling rockets in Venezuela that can reach the United States. Our border is being breached by terrorists on a regular basis and illegals are pouring in...

No surprise. In fact, I assume Reid postponed today’s Senate vote until tomorrow precisely so that he could pressure fencesitters by telling them they’re now in position to make the DREAM come true. 38 Democrats voted no with the GOP versus just eight Republicans who crossed the aisle to vote yes. The defectors: Joe Cao (defeated in general election) Mike Castle (defeated in primary) Lincoln Diaz-Balart (retiring) Mario Diaz-Balart Charles Djou (defeated in general election) Vern Ehlers (retiring) Bob Inglis (defeated in primary) Ileana Ros-Lehtinen If you’re looking to punish any of them with a primary, the pickings are slim.

  The biggest battle in the lame duck session of Congress may well be over whether or not to extend the Bush administration's tax cuts, which are scheduled to expire in January. The fact that this decision has been left until late in the eleventh hour, even though the expiration date has been known for years, tells us a lot about the utter irresponsibility of Congress. Neither businesses nor individuals nor the Internal Revenue Service will know what to do until this issue is resolved. In a stalled economy, we do not need this prolonged uncertainty that can paralyze...

A liberal friend of mine sent out an email this past week urging all of the recipients to urge their Representative and Senator to push for the passage of the Dream Act when Congress reconvenes next week. I wrote back that such a result would be a disaster for the cause of real immigration reform, no matter what the short-term benefits he imagined flowing from the act. Anyone who wants a comprehensive solution to the problem of illegal immigration, one that begins with the completion of the fence and moves on to regularization of the millions of illegal aliens in...

As Senate GOP leaders look ahead to the lame-duck session, many are cautiously optimistic about their chances of thwarting any big-ticket spending initiatives. In fact, with a limited calendar and potential Democratic losses on the horizon, some Republicans wonder whether the latter will even come up for debate. In an interview with National Review Online, Don Stewart, the communications director for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), says that Republicans “are preparing and remain on guard” for Democratic maneuvers. Still, he says, “With a whole new crop of Democrats, including the president, immediately facing the 2012 cycle after Election Day,...

Lame duck dangersFriday, October 15, 2010 U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith When a football game goes into overtime or a baseball game goes into extra innings, fans are usually on the edge of their seats with excitement. Unfortunately, when Congress goes into extra innings it usually means bad things for American taxpayers. In Congress, such overtime is called a "lame duck" session, and one is set to take place shortly after the November elections. I am concerned this session will be used as an opportunity by some to bring up controversial issues without the possibility of being held accountable. House Speaker...

Here's the scenario -- it's 14 days after the 2010 midterm elections. The American people made their voices heard at the ballot box and voted for an ideological shift in the United States Congress. But despite this clear voter sentiment, a desire for change, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid decides to announce an aggressive legislative agenda to finish out the second session of the 111th Congress. That's not a far-fetched scenario to envision, especially when it comes to Senate Democrats making a last run at passing cap-and-trade. It's a possibility Carol Browner, Obama's energy and environmental czar raised in a...

The House last week took about seven hours out of its customary August recess to come back and pass the $26 billion union bailout bill. The unusual session confirmed the well-known principle that the republic is most imperiled while Congress is in town. That's why Rep. Tom Price, Georgia Republican, is on the right track with his resolution that would restrain federal lawmakers from meeting after the November elections until the new representatives take the oath of office in January. Election-year lame-duck sessions of Congress have plagued the nation for generations. Eighty years ago, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch complained about...

The House will vote next week on a Republican measure that would prevent Democratic leaders from passing controversial policy initiatives during a lame-duck session of Congress this year. Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Rep. Tom Price (Ga.) introduced the privileged resolution last Thursday in response to reports that Democratic leaders told their base that they could move big-ticket legislation after the November elections and before the new Congress convenes in January. Price explained that his resolution says that a lame-duck session should not occur unless there were to be a national emergency. “When [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [D-Nev.] and...

FDL has learned that in a last minute move, Nancy Pelosi sneaked language into the rule that the House is voting on tonight regarding war funding. Embedded in the rule is the requirement that the House will vote on the deficit commission’s recommendations in the lame duck session if they pass the Senate. The commission, co-chaired by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, is packed with members who favor the raising the retirement age to 70, means testing, and private accounts. Many also support investing 20% of the Social Security trust fund in the stock market. It’s ironic that yesterday Pelosi...

According to Fred Barnes at The Weekly Standard, the Obamis are planning a lame-duck session of Congress, "filled with defeated and retired senators and House members," to pass a VAT (value-added tax). Liberals know that they get a chance to enact progressive legislation only once in a generation. That's when the cycle of politics throws up a liberal majority in Congress, and liberals have the votes to cram down their agenda. That's why President Obama is in such a hurry, eager to jam down liberal legislation in the teeth of popular opposition. I call it the ratchet. In the 1900s,...

WASHINGTON – Interim Minnesota Sen. Dean Barkley announced Monday he will be an independent during his brief stay in Congress, enabling Democrats to remain in control when the Senate begins a postelection session this week. As a result of Barkley's decision, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., will continue in that post when the Senate is gaveled into session Tuesday. That means Daschle can decide what bills the Senate debates during the so-called lame-duck meetings of the current Congress, which are expected to run for at least a week. EXCERPT OF ARTICLE