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White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest addresses the media during his daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room, Nov. 19, 2014 in Washington, D.C.

Quick Hit: House Votes, Earnest Vents

Before the House passed the meaningless Yoho bill, Josh Earnest called out the GOP on immigration.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest addresses the media during his daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room, Nov. 19, 2014 in Washington, D.C.

When it comes to fixing the immigration system, the GOP supports "doing nothing," according to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

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Surprising no one, the Republican-majority House passed a bill designed to rebuke President Barack Obama for taking unilateral action on immigration. HR 5759, authored by Rep. Ted Yoho, R.-Fla., declares Obama's executive action "null and void," but in reality, the bill will die in the Senate. It only was supposed to let conservatives “vent” outrage at Obama but avoid actually doing something - like shutting down the government, say, or passing their own immigration reform bill.

But not that many lawmakers on the right like the bill, a few say a government shutdown should still happen, and the only person who seemed to be venting was White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

[READ: Who's the Tyrant When it Comes to Immigration?]

On a press call Wednesday, attended by U.S. News’ own Allie Bidwell, the subject was an administration plan easing access to college, but Earnest veered into immigration territory and unloaded on the GOP over the Yoho bill. He said the bill the House just passed would unfairly expose DREAMers - the children of undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and are attending college or serving in the military - to deportation:

“Right now, House Republicans are considering a piece of legislation...that would reverse this. Under their proposal, Republicans would devote limited enforcement resources that the president believes should be focused on criminals, and focus them on DREAMers - hardworking immigrants to this country who are American in every way but their papers. The president believes this is unfair, it’s bad policy, and it only serves to exacerbate flaws in our broken immigration system. It’s also a continuation of an approach that Republicans have pursued to perpetuate that system. Many of them have lobbed accusations suggesting that the president supports amnesty."


Not that harsh or biting. Earnest, however, was just getting warmed up:

“The truth is the president believes we need more accountability in our immigration system. That’s what his policies would do - increase accountability. Republicans, on the other hand, seem to be content to do nothing to try to fix our broken immigration system, other than rolling back some of the president’s proposed reforms. Doing nothing to restore and in some cases rollback accountability is in this situation the definition of amnesty and it’s exactly what Republicans support."


Wow – that could leave a mark.

[ALSO: The Numbers Behind Immigration]

It’s hard to know exactly what Earnest was thinking when he went off-topic and partisan, particularly about a bill everyone predicted - justifiably - wouldn’t live past the afternoon news cycle. Perhaps Earnest saw an opportunity to get ahead of the news and further cast Republicans as the anti-immigration policy, or maybe he was just grumpy and needed a snack.

Either way, his remarks offer a glimpse into how a seemingly emboldened White House intends to frame newly-empowered congressional Republicans on an issue that could give the GOP fits in the months and years to come. If the meaningless Yoho bill and vote on it is any indication, Earnest and his comrades will have plenty of material to work with.