The Trump administration is kicking off its "Buy American, Hire American" campaign in earnest today, following up on one of the president's recurring pre-election themes — a kind of subset of the president's "Make America Great Again" motto.
Buy American, Hire American was the subject of one of the president's several executive orders (EOs), but, according to Fox News, this week there will be a roll-out of exhibits featuring products made in all 50 states at the White House, to be followed soon by visits to various Midwestern venues to continue pressing the subject.
Apparently, though, at least some portion of the House of Representatives, despite its Republican majority, didn't get the memo. On July 14, Politico Pro reported that the House Appropriations Committee, headed by Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), voted to permit illegal-alien beneficiaries of DACA, Barack Obama's administrative, and constitutionally questionable, amnesty program, to apply for federal jobs (behind a paywall, here).
One wonders why the Appropriations Committee felt the need to make its pathetic voice heard. This isn't something over which they would seem to have subject matter jurisdiction, that being more appropriately perhaps within the purview of the House Government Oversight, Homeland Security, or Judiciary Committees.
Whatever the motive, this is a slap in the face to ordinary Americans. Under this measure, young citizens recently graduated from college and military veterans will have to compete with these aliens to join the federal civil service. DACA beneficiaries may be "lawfully present", but only by a stroke of the infamous presidential Obama pen. That stroke can be (and by now should have been) undone by Trump in keeping with another of his campaign promises, which he has to date reneged on.
As to the Appropriations Committee, I hope sincerely that the constituents in the home districts of the members who make up the Committee make themselves heard.
Of course, a vote by a single committee (done sneakily by voice vote so no one would have to be on record) doesn't make this law. Nor should it. Ever.
Meantime, a consortium of 10 states, led by Texas, has notified the federal government of its intent to sue over the constitutionality and legality of DACA should this administration not take the steps necessary to end it the way it started — with a stroke of the chief executive's pen.