memorandums and executive orders together, is president obama on the low end or has he done more? he s certainly signed more presidential memoranda than others. when you call them both executive actions, he s on pace to take more than any president. the reason i ask this because as i read this, it seems that they re essentially the same thing. whether they have historically been used for different purposes or not. you can amend executive orders with executive orders. it seems when the president says i m issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in more than 100 years, he s being a little slippery because he s not mentioning the presidential memorandums which he does so much more than other presidents on the presidential memorandums. no. these are precise terms that even the president, even the president s press secretary sometimes slip up. josh earnest said he s issued an executive order on immigration. there was no such thing. the immigration executive action
a justice department spokesperson says, quote, the decision is unfounded and the court had no basis to issue such an order. no party in the case challenged the constitutionality of the immigration executive action and the department s filing made it clear that the executive actions did not apply to the criminal matter before the court. schwab added that although presidents do enjoy prosecutorial discretion on a case-by-case basis, president obama s sweeping pronouncement involving entire classes of persons in the u.s. illegally went in schwab s opinion far beyond what is legally permissible. bret? we re following it, shannon, thank you. now to another huge story, less than 14 hours after a lone wolf terrorist s hostage siege ended in sidney, australia, taliban gunmen broke into a school in pakistan, delivering one of the deadliest attacks in this country in years.
starred to convince the motion to concur is passed. zbrr then late saturday night, the senate voted 56 to 40 to approve the government funding package. cruz challenged the constitutionality of the measure because it does provide some money for homeland security which could be used to help implement president obama s immigration executive action. cruz s effort was rejected 24-72. it would have been political malpractice for him to adjourn for the year without getting these things through. meanwhile the left has praised massachusetts senator elizabeth warren for her vocal opposition for a weakening of dodd-frank banking regulations in the 1,600 paige banking bill. a financial institution has become so big and so powerful that it can hold the entire
battle just a few months away. chief congressional correspondent mike emmanuel has more from washington. reporter: the threat of a government shutdown is off the table, for now. the final vote was 56-40 last night and the senate on a $1 trillion plus government funding package. texas senator ted cruz challenged the constitutioninality of the measure because it does provide some money for homeland security, which could be used to help implement president obama s immigration executive action. cruz s effort was rejected 74-22. the senate s top democrat ripped cruz. the junior senate from texas is wrong, wrong, wrong on several counts. but most importantly, for us, this evening, is an attack on this bill. because it s not an appropriate place to debate the constitutioninality of any branch action. reporter: a voter in the saturday where reid was able to start the process of two dozen of nominees. there is pressure to get it done
senate floor where lawmakers must pass at least a temporary funding bill in the next few hours. then a procedural vote on the trillion-dollar-plus bill at about 1:00 a.m. and likely final passage on monday unless there s a deal. the house passed a short-term measure through next wednesday to give the senate a little more time. it looked like the senate was heading for a weekend off until some key conservatives objected hoping to stop president obama s action on immigration. i certainly don t see any reason why we should agree to move forward then and not have any assurance that we would at least have an opportunity to vote on an amendment that would impose a spending limitation on the president s ability to implement his executive amnesty action. now, some gop colleagues are expressing their frustrations saying they want to fight the president on funding his immigration executive action, but they think it would be smarter to do so in the new year