It didn't take Clawson long to become thorn in GOP side
Ft. Myers News-Press
Washington, Aug 4 | comments
by Ledge King
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It didn't take Rep. Curt Clawson long to become a thorn in the side of GOP leaders.
The Bonita Springs Republican, who won a special election in June, joined about a dozen of the House's most conservative Republicans this past week, including Michele Bachmann, of Minnesota, and Steve King, of Iowa, to make sure any effort to address the growing border crisis also prevents the Obama administration from processing any more children crossing the U.S.-Mexico line.
They said they'd support the border bill backed by House Speaker John Boehner only if GOP leaders promised there were enough votes for their companion legislation: a bill to prevent President Barack Obama from deferring deportations of young immigrants illegally in the U.S.
The influx of child illegal immigrants has increased dramatically over the past three years.
The conservatives' insistence forced Boehner to pull a border security bill from floor consideration Thursday because there weren't enough votes to pass it.
On Friday, the border bill passed 223-189 (with Clawson's support). It includes funds to boost border security, hire more immigration judges and National Guard troops, and house and care for the thousands of illegal minors held at the border.
Shortly afterward, the House voted 216-192 to pass the measure pushed by Clawson and his fellow conservatives.
Clawson said that measure is humanitarian (the trip that children are making from Central America to the U.S. is dangerous), fair (deferring deportations of illegal immigrants is unfair to those who have been waiting years to enter the country) and financially prudent (it costs money to care for the children).
"It puts a strain on the United States by having lots of people come that we didn't expect," he said. "So now we're in crisis mode. And any time that in an organization that we are in crisis mode, we overspend."
Democrats opposed the measure, saying it's not only inhumane to turn away children at the border, but the bill also would end up deporting young people who arrived here years ago as small children through no fault of their own.
Michigan Democrat John Conyers called it "one of the most mean-spirited and anti-immigration pieces of legislation that I've ever seen."
The bill is not going anywhere. Senate Democratic leaders have vowed to kill it and Obama said he would veto it.
Rubio on foreign policy
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida doesn't think much of President Barack Obama's foreign policy (no surprise there). Rubio said if he decides to run for the White House in 2016, he'd take a decidedly more aggressive tack as president.
First, the Cuban American from West Miami, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says he'd be much more involved in affairs of this hemisphere.
From civil rights and corruption concerns in Venezuela to financial distress in Argentina, this part of the globe has been largely ignored by the White House and the Congress, Rubio told reporters this past week.
"I'll get a lot of interest from (Florida Democratic) Sen. (Bill) Nelson and (New Jersey Democratic) Sen. (Robert) Menendez, and then you start running out of people who are willing to spend a lot of time focused on the issue because it doesn't have the kind of hot spots you find in the Middle East or other places," he said.
He also said he'd take a tougher stance with Russia in its conflict with Ukraine, with Iran on its nuclear program, and with China about its relationship with neighboring countries.
"The president's (2008) campaign on foreign policy was driven by the idea that the reason why we had these problems around the world was because George Bush was too involved, (that) basically we told people what to do far too often," Rubio said. " (So) we… allowed other nations to fill the void… and what we found is that, absent American leadership, what's created is a vacuum, and that vacuum leads to chaos. And you're seeing evidence of that everywhere."
It's been a series of firsts for Clawson.
On July 17, he introduced his first bill, a measure to correct flood mapping errors on Gasparilla Island and Marco Island. The bill was first introduced by Rep. Connie Mack IV before he left to run for the Senate, and was picked up by Republican Rep. Trey Radel, who resigned in January after a cocaine arrest.
On Tuesday, Clawson delivered his first floor speech, a defense of Israel's right to defend itself by going after Hamas in the Gaza Strip.