Lawmakers complain Obama too aloof with Congress

 

 

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Lawmakers complain Obama too aloof with Congress

By ANDREW TAYLOR and DONNA CASSATA
AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s request for billions of dollars to deal with migrant children streaming across the border set off Democrats and Republicans. Lawmakers in both parties complained that the White House — six years in — still doesn’t get it when it comes to working with Congress.

Top GOP leaders got no notice of the $3.7 billion emergency request. The administration sent contradictory messages about what it wanted to deal with the border crisis. And as the proposal drew fierce criticism, the White House made few overtures to lawmakers in either party to rally support.

House and Senate lawmakers in both parties plus several senior congressional aides said this past week that the handling of the proposal by Obama and the White House is emblematic of the administration’s rocky relationship with Congress: an ad hoc approach that shuns appeals to opponents and doesn’t reward allies.

Combined with a divided Congress — GOP-led House and Democratic-controlled Senate — and election-year maneuvering, neither basic nor crisis-driven legislation is getting done.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., described the lack of communication between the White House and Congress as “stunning.” He said he first learned many details of Obama’s border request from news reports.

Obama is the “only person in America who can sign something into law and help bring members of his party on board for an outcome on a given piece of legislation that requires bipartisan support,” McConnell said in an interview. “So it’s a mystery, but that’s the way they operate.”

Several Democratic lawmakers echoed McConnell but spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid alienating the president of their party. They said they were baffled by the White House’s tactics in handling the border request. Several Democrats expressed frustration that the president and administration officials weren’t more involved in legislative fights.