Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.V.) agrees that President Obama “overstepped” his constitutional authority with the recent executive orders on immigration, but he opposes blocking funding for those orders, and isn’t sure how else to stop them.
“I agree that the president overstepped his bounds, this is just the wrong place to do it,” Manchin told National Review Online when asked if he would help filibuster a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that only blocked Obama’s most recent 2014 orders on immigration.
“This is not the bill to be playing around with,” he said, to explain why he wants a “clean” DHS bill from Republicans. “You don’t use Homeland Security to do anything; Homeland Security is to secure the homeland.”
So, how can Congress restrain Obama on this issue without denying funding for the implementation of the orders? “Bring up an immigration bill,” he says. “I don’t care if it’s border [security] only.”
And what happens when Obama vetoes that bill and continues to implement his executive orders? After pausing a few seconds, Manchin said he had to go and exited the Capitol.